16 students from around the USVI left the University of the Virgin Islands on Sunday, July 22, in a wave of emotion after completing the 2018 Entrepreneurship Business Institute (EBI). Having spent two weeks living in college dorms, taking classes, going on field trips around the island, listening and interacting with guest speakers, preparing business plans and a whole lot more, tears and laughter filled the room after the closing program and at the airport as they went their separate ways.
EBI is a free, two-week summer program, that offers high school students the opportunity to develop important entrepreneurial, leadership and business skills. Held this year from July 8 – 22 at the UVI St. Thomas campus, the annual program is a collaboration between International Capital and Management Company, the University of the Virgin Islands and International Private Bank.
While the opening ceremony highlighted Terri Brown, of MLB Creative as the featured speaker, the closing program’s keynote speaker was Ashley Allen, who students said was more relatable because he is young and spoke directly with them on a short list of reminders.
Being involved with things like this is my humble pleasure and a true labor of love. My goal is to gradually get back to teaching students to do the same type of new media journalism and general multi-media documentation under Sankofa Saturdays, which I’m in the process of registering to be a 501c3. I paused after the storm caused most of my students to move away, but am slowly rebuilding and pouring in the same energy of myself to the WUVI students.
That list of Ashley Allen’s tips, pictures, videos along with more info about the experiences of the program will be added shortly. Thanks for your continued support! Here’s an interview conducted near the end of the program with students and administrators recorded at WUVI.
https://soundcloud.com/wuviradio_vi/connected-conversations-ebi-summer-program
