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| UVI junior Zenobia Howe taking classes via teleconference from the University's St. John Academic Center |
When University of the Virgin Islands junior Zenobia
Howe returned to St. John and enrolled at UVI she was prepared to catch a 15
minute bus ride to Cruz Bay, take the 25 minute ferry ride to St. Thomas, and make
her way from St. Thomas’ east end to the University’s St. Thomas Campus in the
west.
However, Howe was pleased to discover that she did
not have to. Nestled at the edge of Cruz Bay on the third floor of the Marketplace,
is the UVI St. John Academic Center. This fall Howe is able to take all her
classes at the center via teleconference. With four state-of-the-art interactive classrooms,
computers, a lounge, study room, library, a program coordinator, librarian, and an
information technology technician, Howe is able to attend classes without the
commute.
On this fall day, Howe is catching up on her studies
on a brightly colored sofa in the center’s lounge with her laptop propped up beside
her. Although the lounge usually draws several students on a typical day, she
is only sharing it with fellow student Irah Christian and UVI Academic Center
Librarian Ashley Till. Howe says that the Academic Center staff is very helpful
and knowledgeable. They assist with finding research materials, papers and with
assignments. “It’s like a little study hall where everyone helps out everyone
else,” she says. “We are all here almost every day. You get a very close knit
relationship with everyone.” Howe says that she is not able to bond with her
classmates after classes in the traditional sense, but does not feel left out
either. She finds it easy to communicate her needs to professors via email.
Howe says that without the center she would not be
able to work to support herself and attend classes full-time. “It is a pretty
big deal to not have to go to St. Thomas every day,” she says. “I got to work. I
have to pay rent.”
Howe is a communication major at UVI. She chose this
field to raise awareness and open up minds. “I wanted to be a voice,” she says
of the communications field. Instead of pursuing a career in media, she is
considering becoming an entrepreneur. Currently, she is enrolled in a digital
entrepreneurship class. Howe has been tasked with creating a website for an
online business. “My website will be good by the end of the semester,” Howe says.
“That is one of the classes I am really excited about.” She plans to create a
one-stop shop for natural and holistic products and lifestyles. Howe has seen
some sites that include natural products, but none have all products. “Everyone
is going ecofriendly and green,” she says.
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| UVI Student Zenobia Howe in St. John Academic Center lounge |
Recently, Howe was able to attend a 13D
Entrepreneurship Lecture with featured speaker Dr. Dennis Kimbro, best-selling
author on self-made millionaires. She attended via teleconference from the St.
John Academic Center. Howe says she was inspired, motivated and empowered by
his lecture. She plans to enter UVI’s 13D Entrepreneurship competition later
this year. “Communications, I love it,” she says. “I am still going to keep up
with it, but as I go forth I will use everything I learned to become an
entrepreneur.”
UVI St. John Academic Center Program Coordinator
Kent Wessinger has been working to ensure that operations at the center run
smoothly for several years now. “It is rewarding in the fact that I am able to
invest something significant into the community in which I live,” he says. “One
of the main objectives is to remove a travel barrier and that is important to
me. One of the things that the St. John Academic
Center has been able to do is open an opportunity for students at UVI that
ordinarily would not get the opportunity if this center was not here.”
Wessinger says that the technology at the Academic
Center is at the highest level. “We have students from diverse backgrounds that
are able to participate in our classroom experience that ordinarily would not
be able to participate if the technology were not there,” he says. “A lot of
single parents can’t make that commute over to the St. Thomas Campus because
they have commitments to their children. So now they can participate in
classes. They bring a level of maturity that was not there before.”
Wessinger says that the students in the center get
personalized attention as the student body is smaller. Students receive
assistance with their advisement, tutoring, and with life situations. “We see a
high level of success with our students here,” says Wessinger. “Students want
to be here. That level of engagement and relationship matters to the students.”
As the center’s librarian, Till provides
academic support to students by teaching them how to access and navigate the library’s academic resources that are also
available to students on the St. Thomas Campus and the Albert A. Sheen Campus
on St. Croix. “They get their own personal librarian three days a week,” she says. Students
receive tutoring, are assisted with research papers and get life skills, such
as filling out resumes or writing letters for internships. Till says all librarians at UVI teach
information literacy skills.
She believes the academic center is vital to the
people of St. John. “It provides access for students that would not ordinarily
have access,” Till says. “For a lot of students here, staying on campus is not
an option.” Often students work or are non-traditional students.
Wessinger believes that the St. John Academic Center
is the model for education going forward. “There are travel barriers and other
barriers that exist in higher education,” he says. “If we can’t tailor
education and models of education after our student body we put ourselves in a
position where we isolate our students and we build walls and barriers against
students that actually fortify our institutions.”
He believes UVI has implemented a model for higher
education in the Caribbean. “We have the technology to make this happen
throughout the Caribbean right here,” says Wessinger.
