News Releases

UWI, Arthur Ashe Institute and NGOs partner for climate change internship programme

For Release Upon Receipt - July 25, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad & Tobago – According to the New York Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), the global toll that climate change takes on the health of all nations becomes more chronic daily. Furthermore, climate change will pose an increasing public health threat to the generation currently in secondary school. They will experience the steadily accumulating health impact more immediately and will need more skill in critical thinking, creative problem-solving, applied research and collaboration than are available in current science curricula.  

In light of this pressing issue, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has again partnered with the AAIUH, through the J. William Fulbright Research Specialist Programme, and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to establish the Summer Internship Programme on Climate Change and Public Health. This second collaboration on an internship programme will foster excellence in the health sciences among secondary school students in Trinidad and Tobago.  

In 2012, 20 fifth and sixth form students participated in the Social Determinants of Health Summer Internship Programme. This year, there are 18 sixth form participants.  

The internship programme, which focuses on climate change and public health, is a replication of a summer internship programme conducted by the Arthur Ashe Institute in the United States. In addition to didactic sessions, there will be community engaged research projects focused on climate change and public health. Lecture sessions take place at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, and students will be assigned to NGOs in Trinidad & Tobago to conduct their research projects. 

Deputy Director of the Arthur Ashe Institute, Dr. Marilyn Fraser-White, and The UWI’s Dr. Judith Gobin, Lecturer in Marine Biology, welcomed students on July 15 to the 5-week programme and provided an overview.

For further information, please contact Dr. Marilyn Fraser-White at mfraserwhite@arthurasheinstitute.org, or visit the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health online at www.arthurasheinstitute.org.

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More about the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health 

The Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1992 by Arthur Ashe- the late tennis champion, civil rights activist, and humanitarian. Located in multi-ethnic Brooklyn, AAIUH collaborates with community members to design, incubate and replicate neighborhood-based interventions that address health conditions that disproportionately affect minorities.  

Recognising the complexity of the economic and social determinants of health, they partner with a wide variety of grassroots and institutional organisations to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for underserved groups. The Community Health Empowerment (CHE) model guides and unifies all their work.  

About THE UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

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