The UWI Class of 1967 establishes Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation.

In celebration of their 50th Anniversary of Graduation last year, the UWI Class of 1967 decided to give back something tangible to their Alma Mater. After much deliberation, they decided to endow an annual prize to a student from the new Faculty of Engineering – Mona, to be known as: The UWI Class of 1967 Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation. They chose to use the Award to increase attention to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) agenda there at Mona and opportunely to celebrate the establishment at Mona of the new Faculty of Engineering.

The Award will be made at the Faculty’s annual Awards Ceremony and will be based on the behaviours exhibited and performance displayed in the previous academic year applying the criteria of Leadership, Innovation and Academic Performance. They hope that The UWI Class of 1967 Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation will become acknowledged within and outside the University as a most prestigious Award to be sought after by the undergraduate students in the Faculty of Engineering for the positive signal it will convey to employers and graduate programmes.

Mrs Dawn Ottey presented Dean Aiken with the gift cheque of $1.4M to endow The UWI Class of 1967 Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation. She noted that money is still coming in as classmates continue to support the initiative.

The Class of 1967 looks forward to the Awards Ceremony on November 1, 2018 when they will present the first Award of $100,000 to the first recipient, who will have exhibited excellence in Leadership, Innovation and Academic Performance.

Dean Aiken sincerely thanked the Class of 1967 for this generous award to recognize Excellence and Innovation in Leadership among the students of his faculty. He noted that in fact, Mona Engineering had already benefited significantly from one of the graduates of the Class of 1967 – Dr Vincent Lawrence, who along with his team of Directors from JenTech consultants have been very instrumental and supportive in the creation and facilitation of the Civil Engineering programme at Mona. He took the opportunity to thank Dr Lawrence and his JenTech team for their unwavering support. He noted that the 1967 Class Prize will be administered by a Committee chaired, for the first term of three years, by Professor Neville Ying of the Class of 1967, and will comprise of the Dean of the Faculty, the Deputy Dean and two other persons appointed from the Class of 1967 with an ex officio member from the Mona Registry.

He also noted that the Class of 1967 gift will assist the Faculty of Engineering in achieving its mission of providing high quality education with emphasis on application via research and development in support of Caribbean business, industry and infrastructure. He ended by stating, “I strongly believe that with partners like you – we shall become a Global Hub for Engineering teaching, research and practice”.