St Rose’s Alumni Association stands strong
MORE than 23 years after its establishment, the St. Rose’s Alumni Association USA Inc. remains a vibrant force – providing much-needed support to its alma mater.
During a recent interview with executive members of the Association in Queens, New York, President, Lorraine Croft-Farnell and Vice President, Pauline Roman-Willis discussed the work that the association has done over the years.

Cognisant of the challenges facing the St. Rose’s High School in Guyana, the president said that the association has been streamlining its plans and projects to address those issues, with the aim of raising the level of education offered at the school and providing a window of opportunities for the students.

“We know there are challenges, so we are going to work with the Headmistress and the Board of Governors as best as we could to help them with those challenges, and also to assist them to improve the overall success of the school,” Croft-Farnell told the Pepperpot Magazine, on the margins of a Guyanese Diaspora Conference at York College.
Though the St. Rose’s Alumni Association, USA, INC. had some concerns about the performance of the school at the regional examinations, it was satisfied with this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Council (CSEC) Examination and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results.

“We have seen an improvement in the overall performance of the students. So this is something that we will continue to work on,” the president said.
St. Rose’s High, Shawn Shewram, was named Guyana’s 2017 Top CAPE student after attaining eight grade ones in a single sitting. The school also gained some of the top spots when the 2017 CSEC results were released by the Education Ministry.
The president said St. Rose’s will continue to aggressively challenge Queen’s College and the Bishop’s High School.

LEADERSHIP
The Vice President said the alumni had facilitated a leadership programme for the high school students, thus allowing them to apply the ‘Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.’
Those habits are: Be Proactive; Begin with the End in Mind; Put First Things First; Think Win-Win; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; Synergise and Sharpen the Saw. The leadership forum was held in tandem with a career day for the students.
Based on its overwhelming success, Roman-Willis noted that the alumni are considering making the leadership programme an annual feature on its calendar of events.
The second phase is being discussed with the headmistress of the St. Rose’s High School. “It’s about education, but it’s also about behaviour, social advancement; it’s about overall success, in addition to education,” the vice president said.

For 2017, the alumni have secured four crates of essential textbooks that have been shipped to Guyana for the school. A percentage of the books will also be donated to the East Ruimveldt Secondary School. It was explained that the donor is an alumnus of the secondary school.
But this is not the first time the alumni would be contributing books to the school. According to Roman-Willis such donations, which are not limited to books, have been a long-standing tradition.

“We have provided the students with computers and we developed a computer room. Last year, we did something with their language room – we sent home much-needed textbooks for Spanish, Portuguese and French students,” she explained.
The St. Rose’s Alumni Association USA Inc. also offers scholarships to students.
“We do a scholarship programme where we work with the Principal in Guyana to identify the students that have done well each year at the exams, and we provide funds to them to use to further their education. That is a programme that we do annually, so each year, we are represented at the prize giving and these awards go to the students,” the vice president further explained.

In addition to the scholarship programme, the association collaborates with the Canadian Chapter to pay the custodian.
“We found out that, I don’t know for what reason, there wasn’t a custodian paid on staff for the school, so we paid for that. We pay every other year, and Canada pays the alternate years,” the vice president explained.
Roman-Willis said the chapters strongly believe that it is important for students to learn in an environment that is clean.

Established in 1994, St. Rose’s Alumni Association USA Inc. has a membership of 50, however; it has more than 400 alumni listed on its mailing list. Currently, it is doing a membership drive as it seeks to connect alumni.
Compton Grose, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer; Beverly D’Andrade-Waaldijk, Board Member; Ingrid Thomas-Clark; Sonny Susankar; and Cameil Dalgetty-Jarvis were also present.