It did not come as a shock to the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) fraternity that Dr Patience Bazuaye-Alonge, Arton Wedderburn, Lucinda Peart, and Dr Marilyn Anderson captured awards at the recent Joint Committee on Tertiary Education (JCTE) awards ceremony.
After all, the four are consistently high achievers in their respective fields and capacities.
Dr Bazuaye-Alonge, who copped the Educator of the Year award, is graduate coordinator in the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science, and country ambassador for the American Society for Microbiology 2018-2020. Wedderburn, a final-year religion and theology student who captured second place in the Most Outstanding Student of the Year award, has grade point average (GPA) of 4.0. Dr Anderson, a former chair of the Music Department who rose to the position of interim president of the university for 2016-2017 and Lucinda Peart, a former chair of the English and Modern Languages Department, now Humanities Department, each received the Lifetime Achievement award.
The award ceremony was held at the Oasis Resort in Negril on December 12, 2019.
Nigerian-born Dr Bazuaye-Alonge, who moved to Jamaica in 2000, is elated and humbled at her selection.
“I was excited. I think that whatever you do, you do it in the name of the Lord. That is my principle. I have done it since I was in Nigeria,” she relates.
Alonge is appreciative of the open environment that NCU has created through its willingness to allow students to express themselves openly through worship. “You will not be stopped or disengaged based on your beliefs at NCU,” says Alonge.
