FIGHT POVERTY

Over 3,000 students attended the official UWI Life orientation programme yesterday at the UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre, St Augustine, where they were provided a forum aimed to provide a smooth transition for students into the new semester.

UWI Life consists of three events;UWI Life Support Network for parents, close friends and relatives; UWI Life Student Orientation for incoming students and UWI Life Extension, which caters for mature, evening, part-time, postgraduate and distance learning students.

In his address yesterday, Tewarie told students poverty was a prevalent problem worldwide which needed an immediate solution. He said approximately 300,000 people which represented about 75,000 households in Trinidad and Tobago, lived under the poverty-line. Some households, he said, consisted of pensioners alone as well as some with pre-schoolers who did not attend school.

He said a successful solution produced in Trinidad and Tobago, may become the model solution for global poverty in the future.

Tewarie additionally told students to avoid competing with others and compete with themselves. This, he said, was achieveable by raising the bar of excellence every time a goal was completed.

He reminded students not to be judgmental of others since, he said, “you do not know what type of shoes they wear or how tight the shoes fit.”

Feature speaker at the orientation, Dr Diane Douglas, Psychologist and Counsellor told students that in order to succeed they needed to remember several key factors about life. Among them, she highlighted some simple rules for getting ahead, which she said, were approved by international psychologists.

A commitment to learning, Douglas said, was important in developing skills and knowledge needed for a well-balanced education.

She reminded students that they should not engage in immoral and dishonest practices such as plaigarism, promiscuity and cheating on exams, which had become the norm of some past students.

Douglas said having good moral values was an integral part of successful development and that they should not separate themselves from the values taught by their parents. “Being brilliant does not translate into values”, she said.

The community psychologist encouraged students to develop values of their own, to be future people of integrity.

She added that students should practise delayed-gratification as this would help them prioritise their education over social events. “A young person who can show restraint, is in a strong place”, she said.

Douglas said students needed to know their purpose for pursuing tertiary education and continue to motivate themselves towards attaining their long-term goals.