 Are you looking to broaden your career opportunities? Future-proof your career with a bachelor's degree from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. We've introduced new cutting-edge degree programs in environmental studies and sustainability, tourism and hospitality, business administration and public health. Online platforms are making it easier than ever before to further your education and mask your competitive advantage. This is the game-changer you've been waiting for. Get the highest return on your investment in UICS from the college you trust. Visit SALCC.edu.lc, applied today for September 2021. Hello everyone and welcome to SALCC updates where we bring you reports on our news and events. My name is Nathalie Julie Fanes and it is indeed a pleasure to be here with you again this week as we continue our series for the rest of the calendar year and the academic year for the college in giving you information that is pertinent to your growth and development. You can join us here every Wednesday at 8.30pm with repeats later in the week just in case you want to tell someone else who has missed our episode. So we began last week and I had as my guest the new registrar of the college Mr Ian Minville and he made a significant announcement that we will reopen applications for our January semester that is January 2022 for selected programs. In addition to that we will also be offering some short courses that you can access. Currently they run between six weeks and three months. One of those courses is a quail course or creole course if you want to use the English and that runs for a period of three months and you will get a certificate at the end of that time and it includes all of the skills, reading, writing and speaking in the quail language. So you have an opportunity to visit our website at www.salcc.edu.lc to apply for our associate degree programs as well as the short courses and you can check out our website for more information on the selected courses that are being offered. As I speak of quail during our Creole Heritage Month I have as my guest this afternoon Mr McCovill-Combie who is the coordinator of the newly formed student experience unit and will be speaking to him about some special activities that they have for this month but also about his unit because it is new to the college but a very significant unit I must see. So hello Mr. Combie and thank you for being here with me today. Hello, thank you for having me. So Mr. Combie before we get into our Muay-e-Witaj Quail and we have to start practicing the quail because you know we teach it. Just tell us a little bit more about your unit and its responsibilities. Okay, the student experience unit is the result of the recognition by the college that it had to be more systematic, more organized in ensuring that the activities, the various activities which it had for students were coordinated and therefore be able to have a better impact on those students. So essentially when the unit was created a number of existing departments were drawn together under that unit and therefore it would help coordinate and those units, those departments which were drawn together under the student's experience unit would help therefore ensure that the experience which students have at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College is a holistic one. So for example under the presently under the unit you had the counseling unit, the counseling unit which existed already so it is now under the student experience unit. You had the sports department which was under the unit which is now brought underneath there. We have brought also what we call a health educator which is now under that unit and also the clubs and sports groups which existed and which were under the assistant registrars and it is brought underneath the student's experience unit. So these existing units if you notice they speak to the mental counseling, the physical sports and the educational if you want health and the life skills which is the clubs. So it brings together those units so that they can be a better coordination of those activities to ensure that the students' overall experience is as I said a holistic one. Great and as you speak to the holistic development of the students sometimes at the college level you find some students don't place as much importance on non-academic activities. Can you speak to why this continues to be important even at this level? Well again traditionally for the experience of not just the inclusion but of Caribbean people, people coming out of poverty was that education was the way to success. So when you went to school your parents expected you and expect you to focus on your studies because when you get your in my days to say something about my age but in my days it was GCs so nowadays is CXCs and there used to be A levels now it was A levels now I skip A levels and so when you went to school it was all those things so it was common entrance and in my time when you had common entrance you also had scholarship exam so you had these kinds so these were critical parts in your educational journey and where you needed to succeed. Right now for example there are sufficient secondary schools where most people can get a place in a secondary school. In my time they were not sufficient secondary schools so if you fail common entrance that was it for a number of students their secondary school education was done and then later on you got the junior secondary school so the historical experience in St. Lucia has been that when you're talking about school when you're talking about education it is about the academic and the focus has to be on that. So if for example when you go when when me and it was it continues you would come to school you can play football that's nice but that is fun thing that is fun thing when it's time for examination or stuff I don't you hear you come and tell me about you have to go and play in netball or you have to go and play football or you have to that is a side what is what is happening in the development and that's one other thing about education and educational research it show it always this research and the findings of the research impact how education is delivered how we what we come to understand and one of the things which have been discovered is that the sporting activities the the clubs that way whether it was good guides brownies whether it was what would the others they had they had the Red Cross groups or these things all these different things what educational research has helped recognize is that those so-called what we used to call extra curricular activities those extra curricular activities will have played an important role in developing life skills in students which were even which were just as important in terms of just as important as the academic contribution in bringing out a holistic job so you used to have students coming out there bright bright bright like crazy but they couldn't function they couldn't function and so over time those activities which will have been referred to as extra curricular we stop using the word extra and we call it co-curricular activities and so now these co-curricular activities are seen as playing as an important role as as your academic programs and so much so that in a number of many many majority of the universities and colleges now when you send in your application form they are not just asking you about your academic qualifications they are now asking you about your involvement what clubs are you in and what groups are you involved in because they recognize that all work and no play makes Jack and Jill Adele person so these have become as I said the educational research has shown the importance of those co-curricular activities in the life of in the development of a holistic student and so that is why again as part of the unit since we want to focus on those experience we want to ensure that these students have these opportunities to develop those skills that that is an excellent explanation and I really thank you for the historical context of that and I must even add your gender neutrality of Jack and Jill and person and not just boy it's very important these days so Mr. Kombi the the COVID the pandemic has done a number of things but I know it has also provided opportunities and I want to focus on that a bit so so Arthur Lewis in in the first year of the pandemic we really went full scale getting students online so that they could complete the academic program but I know towards the end of that academic year that your unit I'm really started to get on board with getting student activities can you speak to some of those activities that you have organized for students this far okay I think most most sent lutions and most persons in the world and if and for those who have not recognized it is that COVID will be here with us COVID 19 will be with us for some time so COVID 19 would end even with the decreasing numbers of infections COVID 19 won't end at the end of December 31st 2021 COVID will carry with us into 2022 so it's something we're going to leave I have to live with with for a year or two again before maybe we can say go back to what we used to so you cannot within that accepting that reality we cannot continue to just say well we're waiting for things we have to find how do we operate how do we in that environment and one of the the the real things that have happened is that most persons have had to move things to an online a virtual reality so zoom I think now has become the most popular most common word for many persons nowadays and then you have Google classrooms and whatever and so as a unit because we recognize as I explained earlier the importance of co-curricular activities it now becomes how do we do co-curricular activities in that in that environment because in many instances we cannot bring this co-curricular activities whether it's sports or clubs most times will be face-to-face we cannot bring them face-to-face because of infection rates and stuff like that social distancing how do we move it to our online modality and so from last year we had we sought to inform the students about what was available online so we had the clubs and sports fair which we held online so we in explained we introduced the students to all the different clubs which we had and we had some 14 different clubs active clubs where they can be they could have joined and they could have joined online and the clubs then would reach out to them to have their various activities so the individual clubs are responsible therefore for how they meet how they interact and it is not that they can they will not have face-to-face activities but these would be limited because of the social distances and other COVID-19 protocols but a number of things can be done online so chess can be played online I mean people are surprised I mean the zoom has a lot of different features now when you just started it was just you have you can have breakout rooms and variety so the skill sets as to as groups start utilizing the the platform they become more awkward with the the features of it and therefore can utilize it and so that is what is happened some groups are farther ahead than others but more of the groups are reaching out to the students to the members persons have indicated the interest by that way a major activity we are having this month is a talent expose before you go there I'm just going to interrupt you a bit I want to stay a little bit on the yes can you speak to the range not to name every club but I know there are different types of clubs okay interest can you speak just to the range so that even parents were listening are informed of the types of activities that the students can get involved in okay we have service clubs so that these service clubs would speak about circle K which is the the schools versions of Kiwanis International you have you have Red Cross which I'm Red Cross you have interact and there's pay comes no that's their pay counseling so these are some of the service clubs clubs which essentially they they they call the mission really to be of service to other students and to members of the community so we have clubs in that group we have what we call subject groups or program groups groups which come out essentially of some of the programs or the courses which we teach so for you example we have one of the old lesson and more vibrant vibrant clubs are the modern languages club which is I guess because most times for the lab because of kovid they haven't got every year they had their total margarita this group always had members but the modern languages club you have the the environmental the environmental club that is another one attached to the to the programs and there was the there's they have a long name entrepreneurship entrepreneurship arm club so these are that's another I'm group and there was an third group that's not coming to my mind right now but these are these are some of the types then there are there are what we call if you want interest groups so you for example have the debating club you have the arts persons interested in arts there's an astronomy and astronomy and group so these are groups where people have particular interests you have the you have my plug media you have media you have the the Christian fellowship group so there's a whole range there now and there sometimes we have groups one of the things about those groups is that sometimes you have students you come in in a given year you have students who passionate about it so for the two years there by the day that group is thriving thriving thriving when they graduate you don't get maybe persons coming up with that so it loves so the ebbs and flows in some of those groups particularly the interest the interest groups so these are the categories program interest and service and service and service just before we go to break can you tell us a little bit about the structure of those clubs are the staff run are the more student driven what is the function how do they function well keep in mind as I spoke earlier co-curricular activities one of the key things about it is they develop life skills for the students so most of those clubs when they are formed they supposed to be student driven so the more each of these clubs they would have they would elect the executive which will essentially be primarily responsible for calling meetings hosting meetings and planning but all the clubs have what we call a faculty advisor or faculty liaison officer who is interested in that area and sometimes they were responsible who will then now work if the executive to ensure that they when they plan in things are going well and can be of support for them so in other words the student executives of those club are not left alone if things come up and they need somebody to turn to they know well this is the faculty advisor liaison if us working if us so they can call on them and reach out to them yeah okay so we will take a quick break now mr. Komi we've been speaking for a little while so we dealt with the clubs and I know in as much as we haven't been able to get our sporting events back on track I would like for us to speak a little bit about that and also the new unit within your department or you're the new department within your unit the health just to tell us a little bit about that and then we will get into the details of our why we teach quail activity thank you for joining us at the here at the NTN for SALCC updates we will be back shortly the future is ever-changing communities jobs and economies are continually being transformed this is why we need incredible minds to connect problems of innovative solutions to disrupt and create new industries to enable businesses to think sustainably to ship evidence-based leaders and the next generation of visionaries SALCC helps you to shape your career your passion is calling your future is standing by tap into your potential virtual and on-site classes dedicated faculty diverse student experiences and highly recognized programs to offer loose community college apply today and fast-track your career thank you for staying with us and if you just joining us welcome to SALCC updates giving you information news on our events our new activities at the South Lewis Community College and today in studio with me is mr. Mccoville combi who is the coordinator of the student experience unit and he was just giving us all of this information about how we are keeping students engaged with co-curricular activities that we consider just as important as the academic activities so we were just talking about the clubs a little bit ago and mr. combi I know you spoke about the clubs and sports fair and in as much as sports has not returned to what it should be for young people in St. Lucia give us a sense of what the sporting culture is at the South Lewis Community College well the sports itself is is similar to what we many I'm secondary school students would know the students on arrival at the college are broken two houses are separated into houses wall cut after Derek wall cut first for house after Hunter first were Thomas after Leighton Thomas and first which one I'm Lewis after after Lewis and and we take part apart from internal sports and competition among the houses we take part in a number of the inter-secondary schools and activities so we take part in cricket in basketball in all the various I'm inter-secondary school sports the last time they were the face-to-face spots we were we won a rump we were winning everything so until COVID interrupted us so as soon as that we over that we will return to our winning ways we are now however as a key again as I said how do we operate in this in this COVID environment so we are now looking at some of how to have the virtual activities and we hope for November to have like virtual relay and a number of different sports just because there for students to see how this can this can be so we we will not necessarily have the big face-to-face activities but we will definitely be having one or two virtual activities in sports and for students to see that it is doable and it is just as enjoyable great so we have we have looked at the co-curricular of clubs and sports and students being able to get into this special interest to offer service and therefore build the skills their life skills two other units that you spoke to I think are very very critical one particularly in this in this pandemic period is that of your mental health and I know the counseling unit has been doing some work in terms of virtual engagement as well with students can you speak a bit to that yeah well the counseling unit as I said don't now under as the students experience you there has been an established unit so they have had a a program and what they have been able to do very efficiently is move that program which they have been running for some time on to the virtual swear very very effectively I must say that and so for example two weeks ago they had a college prep seminar for students where they had a facilitator from the United States who joined them was online and he spoke to the students about how they should be learning to prepare for for college and university because too often students it is when they in second year and maybe even when they in the final years of second year they start thinking about universities or colleges and so he was really able to help them understand I know even at your very first semester at the college you have to start thinking about if I am to go to college what are the colleges that available what are the colleges looking for because that is what is critical because again if students are doing that they will know as we said earlier co-curricular skill sets are something very big especially for the universities in the United States so the counseling unit has been able to continue as I say quite a bit of the recently they have they had a apart from college prep they had the online I think is last week where they prepared students for exam because we are midway during the semester and there are some students who are doing a modular format so they would have had they would need they would be having exam after seven weeks of class so again they did a preparation how to prepare for exam exams and stuff so the counseling unit is various as I say has been established and they have moved everything online quite effectively and even as I say the counseling process because that has not been so that is not so difficult as some people because you know you many times a person calls you and they broke down and so you have to talk to them on the phone so they're doing it in a zoom format was just an extension of that process the other unit which is a completely new unit because we had to bring that person a call is the health educator and she is a qualified nurse and her job now is to help speak to persons about health sexual health their bodies and so forth and so sometimes we just assume that as persons young people grew up it's natural so they know about their body it will be a easy thing because we grew up learning about our body from other people telling us things and and is many times when we much older related that what they told us was wrong or half-true for whatever and so the health educator will be having same like online seminars or discussion points with students for them to discuss their bodies their bodies they growth their concerns about their bodies we know in this image conscious age persons can get carried away that so to speak about differences in body and in growth and what is beauty and all those kinds of things so as I said that the unit is trying to ensure that whether it's your mental health whether it's your physical health whether it's your gesture knowledge about your body and your your activities which will develop you body mind and spirit we can meet those needs across the board great and finally the madras here reflects the month that we in I know your unit has some big plans for Creole Heritage Month to tell us what's in store for our students and the general public well we wanted again school supposed to be fun there must be an element of fun and so what we did we wanted to have students showcase their talent and in a fun in in a fun environment and so we decided to have this talent expose for the students and in light of the fact that it was Creole Month we said well listen it will also be a useful thing instead of just having them do they tell and they do something in Creole because we know that a lot of the younger persons are losing that that that experience of of Creole because maybe their parents don't speak to it if speak enough of it they they don't go to the market is the supermarket they're going to shop so we thought we could have done a number of things with that so if they they showcase in the talent so they had developed the skills of rehearsing of preparation of present presentation and so forth but at the same time now they doing it in a in a format with a language in an order so that means you have to learn a little more about the culture they have to learn words which they didn't know and so that way we would be killing about five birds with one stone and so that talent expose is scheduled for the 28th of this month and all now right we are now recording the students as they do their various we expect to have a number of categories we would have a music category where students would be a musical instrument out to a Creole song of their choice we would have a cookout where students would cook a on cold pots which is not the norm for them we would have a I think it is a singing song contest where number of persons will sing a number of songs in Creole we would have a dance where we would show the dance that part would be more demonstration of some of the of the local dance and by that we want to show the young people that you know really dancing as it can be the food and you don't have to always be holding up a wall and we have the we're going to have a little fashion show for once of a better phrase based where the Creole how people have utilized the madras and other Creole colors in making more cash molecules because one of the important things about ensuring the survival of your culture is adapting adapting the culture to the modern time and so in the fashion we will show how they have utilized those things so we really invite you to look forward to the twenty-eighth we have something solid for you thank you so much for that mr. combi mr. combi macawel combi was my guest today on a sale cc updates telling us about the function of his unit the student experience and like he said in his last words the college will be putting on a talent expose for we all join us right here on NTN next Thursday they will be broadcasting that show as well as calabash TV so we're going to bring you that live stay tuned to our social media pages where you can get updates on this and you will be seen our advertisements but we look forward to bringing you the talent of our students thank you so much for joining us continue to follow the protocols and to be safe see you next week are you looking to broaden your career opportunities future proof your career with a bachelor's degree from the South Lewis Community College we've introduced a new cutting-edge degree programs in environmental studies and sustainability tourism and hospitality business administration and public health online platforms are making it easier than ever before to further your education and master competitive advantage this is the game changer you've been waiting for get the highest return on your investment in the U.S. from the college you trust