Seven Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholars Begin Year-Long Program

Alannah leading discussion

This year the BESS program has provided the highest number of Bahamian enrollees in Island School history. Jasmine Wilchcombe, Alannah

(Cape Eleuthera, Eleuthera, The Bahamas)—The Island School (IS) welcomes the second class of exemplary Bahamian high school students to the Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholars (BESS) program for the 2008-2009 academic year. The BESS program offers Bahamian students a unique work and study opportunity that includes a 14-week semester at The Island School, coupled with a six-month paid internship at a conservation-minded organization or an exchange with The College of The Bahamas.

This year the BESS program has provided the highest number of Bahamian enrollees in Island School history. Jasmine Wilchcombe, Alannah

Vellacott, Bradley Watson Jr., and Theodore Thompson will be attending the fall semester at The Island School. Walcott Miller Jr., Oprah Davis, and Latario Moxey will be joining IS in the spring.

Through the BESS program motivated Bahamian high school graduates work on authentic, scientific projects in the field of tropical island ecology. Throughout the IS semester and related internship, BESS participants get high level exposure to critical environmental and marine challenges faced in The Bahamas, Caribbean, and similar island nations around the world. The previous two BESS scholars, Stan Burnside and Alexio Brown, performed extensive research on the Cape Eleuthera Institute aquaculture program before attending university at Ithaca College (New York) and COB, respectively.

This year-long academic and applied experience program helps prepare students for university and teaches future leaders of The Bahamas how to protect the country’s most valuable asset: the environment. The BESS program is sponsored in part by the generous financial support of the Lyford Cay Foundation, the Cape Eleuthera Foundation, and local donors. For more information email BESS@islandschool.org.

Bradley presents findings in Where Are We class