Giving Back Will Carry the Caribbean Forward

I am happy to be back to absorb along with your parents the experience and work over the past few weeks of you SPISE campers.

I will spend the next few minutes chatting with you about one important pledge you made in this camp: the pledge to give back.

By giving back graduates like you build character, institutions, societies and countries. Giving back takes many forms: it can be in kind, financial, or in creating industries, businesses or opportunities.

The Dean Emeritus of New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Peter Blair Henry, shared with me in 2015 that his alumnae contribute between $80 and $100 Million dollars to his university annually.

I give back to my primary and secondary schools and to my university; it’s simply a passion that I have developed for contributing to the institutions that shaped who I am.

We have other great examples in this room of people who are committed to giving back to the region and the world: Professor Cardinal Warde and Dr. Dinah Sah. Annually, they champion, organise and execute selflessly, and I believe sacrificially, this programme. SPISE is a wonderful example of giving back, and of doing so in a meaningful, tangible, developmental, and sustainable way by exposing young minds to the world of STEM and by unearthing a cadre of Caribbean scientists, engineers and inventors. We are in their debt, so let’s show Professor Warde and Dr. Sah much gratitude.

Thank you both.

How can you give back? You can do so by marketing the benefits of this programme to your peers and colleagues, and encouraging them, and their siblings, and their siblings’ friends to enrol in future years.

You can do so by lobbying your governments and the private sector in your respective countries to support and promote this programme.

You can do so by encouraging your parents and their friends to pool their resources and support the programme.

You can do so by contributing financially and/or in kind in a few years when you have graduated and are all enjoying successful careers.

But perhaps the biggest give back from you would be the creation in the Caribbean of the next Google. The Caribbean needs it; the world is waiting on it.

And collectively we have the intellectual capacity and ability in this room.

As a sponsor of SPISE, and as the country’s chief economic advisor, the Central Bank of Barbados looks forward to the day when it can proudly report on the development and contribution of such a business.

The Caribbean anticipates your biggest give back.

I thank you. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and good luck in your future endeavours.