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Grenada Mission/CUNY Scholarship Program
Taps Two Childhood Friends to Study at City Tech
Joseph (left) and Bleasdille
Lerone Bleasdille and Kadell Joseph have been friends since they were in elementary school together in Grenada. In high school, they shared an interest in computers and were especially eager to come to the United States to study and earn a college degree in computer information systems.
Little did Bleasdille and Joseph know when Hurricane Ivan hit their country in September 2004 that out of the devastation would come the opportunity to fulfill their dream. They were two of the 15 Grenadian students chosen to participate in the Grenada Scholarship Program, a partnership between the Grenada Mission and The City University of New York (CUNY).
Tuition and fees have been waived for the 15 students by the CUNY Board of Trustees as a humanitarian initiative to assist Grenadian students in the wake of the havoc wrought by Ivan. The students must complete their baccalaureate degrees by June 2010.
Both Bleasdille, age 20, and Joseph, age 21, chose to attend New York City College of Technology (City Tech), one of the four CUNY colleges participating in the partnership, because it offered exactly the course of study they were seeking. Awarded the scholarships based on their academic achievement, they plan to pursue careers in the computer information systems field, both back home in Grenada and in the U.S., if possible.
Arriving about a month before the start of the spring semester at City Tech, they are living with relatives in Brooklyn -- Bleasdille in East Flatbush and Joseph in Flatlands. Both students are looking forward to widening their circle of friends among neighbors and fellow students.
New York, they find, is quite different from home. Among the differences on the negative side, they note, are the weather (“these winter temperatures take some getting used to,” says Bleasdille) and news reports of violence (“which cause one to look over one’s shoulder more than one would like,” says Joseph).
On the positive side, they agree that all kinds of goods are more easily available here, that the U.S. offers more employment opportunities, and that our system of education is far more relaxed than the stricter British model followed in Grenada.
Both young men lived through the dark days of Hurricane Ivan. “Ivan damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the homes in Grenada,” says Bleasdille. “I was in the Rotaract Club at that time, a group made up of youths from 18 to 30 years of age. After the hurricane, we distributed food to survivors and helped in the rebuilding efforts.”
Joseph explains that Ivan was a Category 4 hurricane, which meant it was extremely destructive. Category 4 hurricanes can have winds up to 155 miles per hour and storm surf surges of up to 18 feet. “Everybody was affected,” he says. “Even though tiles were broken off our roof and there was extensive water damage, we opened our home to neighbors who had no place to stay.”
Following the massive destruction caused by Ivan -- which was compounded by the havoc wreaked a short time later by Hurricane Emily -- the national debt rose, according to Bleasdale, from $400 million to $1.5 billion, with damage from the hurricane estimated at $1.1 billion. He expresses great appreciation for the efforts of Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Claudius Mitchell, to get the country back on it feet. “Dr. Mitchell went on a tour of several countries in search of help,” he says. “The CUNY scholarship program was an outgrowth of that effort.”
2/24/06
