“A programme that allows our students to see just how the rubber meets the road in a real-life environment” said UWI St Augustine Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland.
He was speaking on Friday, August 14 at the First Citizens UWI Internship's virtual closing event. After an intense six-week immersion, 22 UWI students were recognised for their completion of the now annual internship programme.
Hosted virtually via Zoom web conference, the students were applauded by UWI faculty, including Professor Copeland, as well as the First Citizens group—most notably represented by the person behind the internship programme, Professor Sterling K Frost, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Operations and Administration and UWI Professor of Practice in Management Studies.
At the event, testimonials, as well as details of the various projects completed by each of the students, were shared. The internship, which usually runs for a period of 12 weeks, exposes students to the fields of Computing and Information Technology and Management Studies, to provide them with real-world professional experience matched specifically to their area of specialisation. Students learn from First Citizens mentors and function as staff during the internship.
Speaking on the design of the programme, Professor Copeland remarked, “Our students were challenged to apply their training to come up with practical solutions to real business issues. Through a mix of online and face to face encounters, First Citizens employees provided [them] with coaching, guidance and mentorship which allowed them to obtain technical, behavioural and leadership skills.”
Professor Sterling K Frost, Deputy CEO of First Citizens, speaks to the students at an earlier event. In the background is Dr Wayne Goodridge, Head of the Department of Computing and Information Technology in UWI St Augustine’s Faculty of Science and Technology.
First Citizens, despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, sought to ensure that the students were able to participate in the programme. Addressing the Group’s commitment to its stakeholders and its corporate social responsibility in the face of the changing landscape due to the pandemic, Deputy CEO Frost offered the students this advice:
“I challenge you today to not accept anything that is normal or new normal, as this in itself constrains our ability to think expansively about fundamentally transforming ourselves and our society….The new normal should not be the lens through which we examine our changed world. We should use our discomfort to forge a new paradigm instead. A paradigm of excellence, a paradigm of resilience and paradigm of transformation.”
