In 2019, a few short years ago, The UWI Five Islands Campus was established in Antigua and Barbuda. Five Islands is by far the youngest and smallest landed campus of the university, but its growing fast. That growth is fueled by the higher education needs of the Eastern Caribbean, and powered by the efforts of the campus community itself— faculty, staff, and students determined to develop their young institution.
The entire university community was treated with a display of that determination during The UWI Games as the Five Islands contingent fought well above their weight class against the long-established campuses. And even though they didn’t win, they represented their campus like warriors while showing familial warmth to their brothers and sisters from the region.
“It was a new experience for everybody, a learning experience for sure,” says 20-year-old Bridgette Bellamy, captain of the Five Islands team.
Bridgette, now going into her second year pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Management, was part of the campus’s 800-metre relay team that won the silver medal at the games.
The event, she says, was amazing; “Just being selected [as captain] was an honour.”
Oshane Grant, the head of the Five Islands Campus delegation, says the experience was very good for their staff and student-athletes.“The whole atmosphere was buzzing,” he recalls. “It gave them a sense of belonging and a sense of ‘UWI- ness’.”
As the newest campus, that feeling of being part of the larger university is vital, especially for an institution with its headquarters separated by the sea.
“Even though the campus is based in Antigua,” Oshane says, “we have students that are not from Antigua. So, the business of interacting with other students, especially staying in the same hall as the Global Campus team, gave them an opportunity to interact with a number of persons from very different islands, backgrounds, and cultures.”
As team captain, Bridgette saw it as her responsibility to make the students as comfortable as possible in Trinidad so that they could perform at their best on the field.
“For many of them, I think this was their first time travelling for sport.”
It helped as well that she is from South Trinidad. In a way, she was both their captain and their host. Combined with her role as one of the team’s top track athletes, it was a lot.
“It was a bit taxing,” she admits. “When I felt like I should have been resting, I had to get up early to go and support the teams. I had to be catching buses up and down to try and support everybody else. By the end, my voice was gone from cheering for everybody.”
On the track, she had to face intense competition from rivals from the other campuses.
“My times were not the best,” she says, “but when I look back at the experience and watch the videos,
I put up a fight. That 1500 [metres] was probably the most aggressive and strategic I have ever run that distance.
I came 5th. Not exactly what I wanted, but it was max effort. I don’t think I could have done any more.”
Yet Bridgette and her teammates—Narissa Farrell-Bramble, Thauria Joseph, and Tonya Walter—refused to be discouraged and secured second place in the female 800-meter medley relay.
“We still had a fighting spirit and were ready to try our best to bring something home. And that’s exactly what we did.”
That spirit—whether fighting or just to fervently represent their campus—was expressed well before the team landed in Trinidad. The very act of creating and preparing a contingent to take part in the games was a big effort for a small campus.
“The first thing that we were very clear on was that we would be participating in football male and volleyball male and female, but after that, we had to put in serious effort to get the other teams going,” says Oshane, himself a volleyball player who represented the Mona campus at the 2015 UWI Games.
The Five Islands campus reached out to potential donors in Antigua and Barbuda to help them fund equipment and coaching support to develop teams in several sporting disciplines. The Confucius Institute of Antigua and Barbuda, for example, donated two table tennis tables.
Even the students helped. Antigua and Barbuda national player Tyrique Thwaites not only recruited players for the Five Islands female football team, but he was also their coach during the games.
When asked about the nature of the work, Oshane described it as “putting in the infrastructure and building the teams.”
They embraced the challenge: “It’s the job I signed up for,” he says. “It was an excellent experience.”
Now they are looking forward to UWI Games 2028.
“The students are looking forward to it. I am looking forward to it. I have already been looking at how to maintain the teams and keep players together that will still be here,” he says.
Oshane plans on having this year’s athletes become ambassadors in their sports to get more students to enroll at the Five Islands campus and bolster their sports programmes.
If Bridgette is any example, the student-athletes are just as ready to go.
“When the next semester starts, I definitely want to have some meetings with the teams,” she says. “We already have training camps for the track team planned for September. Also, we need more support in coaching and other areas. This was our first time, so getting ready for Barbados, we definitely should have more support—student volunteers, administrators.”
The other campuses are on notice. UWI Games was Five Islands first outing. Next time, they are coming for first place.
