The School of Education and Humanities at the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) launched the Youth Empowerment for A Stronger Society: YESS USC – CSEC History Mentorship Programme. YESS USC is an initiative of the History/Social Studies Department premised on the University’s ethos that the holistic development of young people is essential to their success. Youth empowerment is conceptualised as equipping the young people in the University’s community and the wider society with those skills that are necessary to secure success in academics and even more importantly life.
The CSEC History Mentorship programme targeted secondary schools and four secondary schools consisting of four teachers and forty students participated in the programme. The programme provided support to students and teachers preparing for the CSEC History exams. It is unique because it also seeks to equip students with self-management skills. Teachers, students and parents were exposed to information on cultivating healthy study habits, honing specific study tips for CSEC History, preparation for exams and writing history essays and understanding the teenaged brain. The programme also consisted of an online course component and live lectures which ran for four sessions geared toward providing content and analysis of select CSEC history topics.
The facilitators of this programme included the Dean of the School of Education and Humanities Dr. Loverne Jacobs-Browne and lecturers within the School of Education and Humanities, Dr. Fiona Rajkumar, Dr. Terencia Joseph, Mr. Hayden Mckenna and Mr. Roland Sealy.
Mr. Rodney Rajkumar, Director of the Institute for Education Technology, also played a key role by ensuring quality control of the online class environment. The programme’s closing ceremony took place on Thursday 8th March, 2018 with students testifying to the strong positive impact that it had on them both in the areas of history and the knowledge and skills to which they were exposed.