A Canadian broadcaster is ensuring that youth in her homeland receive higher education

By Tonya Facey

Canadian television broadcaster and community advocate Gwyneth Matthew Chapman has partnered with Dr. Carl Mack, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers; the government of St. Lucia, Goldman Sachs, and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) to establish a scholarship program that will allow 29 students from St. Lucia to attend post-secondary studies in the United States this year. Sway spoke to Chapman while she was in St. Lucia.

Sway: How was this scholarship program started?
Gwyneth Matthew Chapman: It started with inviting Dr. Mack to motivate and inspire St. Lucian youth. It got people thinking in terms of making education one of the key things that we need to develop for them. Dr. Mack wanted to do a bit more, which is how the scholarship idea came up. We think that education is the only way to bring a developing country to the level where it can compete globally.

What is the mission of the program?
The mission is to create more opportunities for St. Lucia’s youth to get higher education.  Less than 5 per cent of them are able to afford higher education. This assistance is vital and we greatly appreciate the support of Goldman Sachs and IIT in making this happen.

Why did you choose to develop this program in St. Lucia?
Because I’m St. Lucian! Part of our anthem is ‘Where so ever you may roam, love, oh love, our island home.’  This, in a sense, is about loving my island and my people. We’re giving back and doing what we can to make a difference.

What were some of the challenges you faced in starting the program?
A nice challenge was that it happened so quickly. We had a month and a half to get everything up and running, including finding students, getting young people to submit applications, interviewing them and looking at their scores. Also, the scholarships were for 70 per cent of tuition, with 30 per cent having to be covered by the parents. The majority of parents didn’t have any money so we were in a constant tug-of-war to try to get money to sponsor the students.

What are the long-term goals of the program?
The idea is to make sure that every single St. Lucian child who wants to go to university has the resources to pursue post-secondary education.  Right now, we’re pushing for more scholarships for next year since we already have that pipeline created. I would like to create an institute where we will have people from the U.S. and Canada going down to implement programs for young people and being the conduit between North America and St. Lucia in terms of technology, youth leadership and the arts.

For more information about this program, e-mail Gwyneth Matthew Chapman at [email protected]

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