From Our President:
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CCJ would like to congratulate the Jamaican Association of Heathcare Professionals on the staging of their 22nd Annual Benefit Gala. What a wonderful evening! Congratulations to Brittany Mitchell, the 2010 Dorothy Francis Scholarship Recipient and to Natasha Harvey, now Natasha Harvey MD; the 2001 scholarship recipient who will be graduating with a Doctorate of Medicine degree on May 7th. Elaine McIntyre, President of JAHCAP and her team did a superb job and a fun time was had by all who attended. Keep up the good work!
On Saturday, July 10 2010, the Chicago Concerned Jamaicans will host their annual Students End of Year Planning and Motivational Seminar in Mandeville, Jamaica. This meeting is attended by our students, past students who have successfully completed our program, parents, local committee members, our President Valerie Richards and our Program Committee Chairperson Naomi Pope.
This event was initially staged for our 5th and 6th form students who were leaving the program and needed help with how to find jobs, continuing their education and to ensure that they had somewhere to go after graduation. Guidance counselors from the schools attended by these students were also invited to help the CCJ local committee plan a course of action for each child, such as recommending a student for a job interview, helping them secure a scholarship for further education or entering a program such as they Joyce Program which is a work/study program.
This is an important event in CCJ's curriculum for our students because they invite successful people to speak at the event, especially those who are coming from a similar background to those of our students. These success stories help our students to understand their struggle and the rewards that hard work can bring. Also invited to the event are people who have the capacity to help us answer our most vexing question, what to do with a student after 5th or 6th form when you have motivated them to come back from the brink of failure and bring himself/herself to where they have achieved the envious position of acceptance into a top tertiary school but still cannot afford to go. CCJ's local committee tries to bring together people who can offer a direction and guidance to these students.
This year, one of the speakers will the Director of HEART who will offer HEART programs to students and parents as an alternative to college for those who cannot afford it. This event helps our students to see and hear the people from Chicago who are behind the program while allowing us to track our students as to where they are going and to help identify non-CCJ resources for them.
At the end of the day, CCJ's goal is to ensure that every dime is well spent, that we have measurable results and that our contribution to enabling the students in our program access to a good education is realized and our students can join the workforce in a meaningful way.
