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April 2019
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A nine-year-old girl takes up her position at the white-bordered edge of a green table. She stares intensely at the low net on the short horizon, clutching her table tennis racket in a pen-hold grip. She drops the weightless white ball onto the paddle's pimpled surface and a spirited rally begins. UWI social sciences student Brittany Joseph is a long way from that little girl who became enamoured of the clackety clack cadence of table tennis. For this UWI sportswoman of the year 2018/19 though, her affection for the sport has only flourished. What began for Joseph as ping-pong is starting to look like the road to Tokyo 2024...the Summer Olympics. Big things have small beginnings. This is thanks, in part, to a commitment by the university to boost the sporting ambitions of students at the institution. This commitment is echoed in a student athlete policy that lays out an established framework for students to go for sporting gold in national, regional and international competitions. They're reaching for the stars while keeping their feet on solid academic ground. The university is, however, also walking the talk through a sports scholarship programme geared towards giving student athletes much needed financial assistance to chase their dreams on the court, pitch, field or tennis table. In 2018, Deputy Principal Professor Indar Ramnarine approached the UWI Development and Endowment Fund (UWIDEF). His goal was to prod them to finance ten sports scholarships at $5,000 each. With no arm-twisting necessary, the UWI-DEF was down with cause. UWI received outstanding support from UWIDEF Chair Nigel Romano and Secretary Kenrick Nobbee. Thus was born their sports scholarship programme. The ten, one-year scholarships were provided to four young women and six young men in areas such as football, cycling, swimming, volleyball, basketball, track and field, cricket and table tennis. To be sure, the sum of $5,000 is modest. The underpinning philosophy of the scholarship programme, however, is anything but. For Professor Ramnarine, this investment has positive repercussions for the wider society well beyond a campus boundary. This is sport with a vision to build society. When is a sport bigger than the game?
“The global sport industry is estimated at approximately $145 billion and growing. It's an area where an athlete from the smallest island can compete globally and become a giant on the world stage. It is also linked to a number of other industries, namely entertainment, fashion, medicine and tourism." What Professor Ramnarine is talking about is the long game. He views sport as a viable industry for T&T, germinating lucrative athletic careers through a fledgling scholarship programme. Pro athletes are going to need specialist coaches, medical practitioners, financial advisers; The UWI Deputy Principal is looking at the entire field of play, not merely one innings. Ours is a small nation with a need for an alternative model of economics, one in which there are several contributors to economic growth and stability. The potential of sport to become a major player in a national diversification thrust is nothing to sniff at. The Faculty of Sport at The UWI very much sees itself as a driving force in this regard. It's challenging the institution to lead the charge in research, education and learning to advance sport as a new engine of economic growth. That's something sorely critical to a traditionally two-stroke economy that's aching for an upgrade. The university is hoping its Faculty of Sport and scholarship programme will attract the researchers, top tier coaches, athletes and medical professionals, as well as investors with an eye for what's around the bend. Of course, The UWI can't hold a candle to the investments tertiary institutions in others countries are able to manage. As mentioned earlier, big things have small beginnings. The institution envisions a more robust economy and multi-faceted society. Every vision must start somewhere. These initiatives are that first, tentative step.
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