By Oswald Brown
Washington, D.C. – Four student Youth Ambassadors from Grand Bahama visited the Bahamas Embassy, 2220 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., on Monday, October 28, 2013, prior to returning to The Bahamas on Tuesday after having completed three weeks participation in a remarkable program sponsored by the BoldLeaders organization.
Gabrielle Moss of Bishop Michael Eldon High School, Alliqueka Capron of Lucaya International School, Aaliyah Vilburn of St. Paul’s Methodist College and Kamaal Bartlett of Tabernacle Baptist Acadamy discussed the benefits gained from their participation in the program with His Excellency Dr. Eugene Newry, Ambassador-Designate to the United States; Consul General to Washington, D.C., the Hon. Paulette Zonicle; and Deputy Chief of Mission Chet Neymour.
They were accompanied by Guidance Counselor Georgette Thompson, an adult participant from Grand Bahama; Charlene Perryman, a student participant from Grenada; and Ellen Cosgrove, a staff member of BoldLeaders.
“Basically, in this program we were able to communicate with people of other countries and develop better leadership skills,” said Gabrielle Moss, the daughter of Marco City MP Gregory Moss.
Noting that the program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department for Youth Ambassadors, Kamaal Bartlett said on their visit to the State Department “all the different countries from the Caribbean had to come up with security and safety issues in their home countries.”
He said the issues the Bahamians came up with were “broken down into three topics,” citing these topics as Environmental Security, Cultural Security and Economic Security.
He added that they also discussed how Bahamian culture has been greatly influenced by America and how young Bahamians “tend to know more about the American lifestyle.”
BoldLeaders staff member Cosgrove said that for the first week of the program all of the participants were in Colorado, and about half of them stayed in Denver while the remainder came to Washington. Last week Thursday, all of the participants assembled in Washington and visited the State Department as a group Friday morning.
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, BoldLeaders is a Social Profit 501(c)3 organization “dedicated to providing leadership development and training services for young people and adults all over the world,” according to its website.
“Our highly experienced trainers and educators have served people, organizations and communities in Cambodia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, and the United States,” the website states. “We facilitate local youth groups for large international organizations, cities, towns, and local schools. We train mentors and teachers and design curriculum. We even train trainers to work with teens. We consult with numerous government, nonprofit, education and business organizations and provide an exciting place for interns to put their knowledge and skills to practice.”
