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Virgin Gorda Youth Welcome Black Engineer of the Year Virgin Gorda youth welcomed Hulas King, 1997 Black Engineer of the Year on Friday, November 21. Mr. King encouraged Virgin Gorda youth to study hard and make plans for college. While he came from very humble means in East St. Louis, Missouri, he has achieved great success. For his humanitarian work, Mr. King was selected from 99,000 employees to be featured in Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes. Mr. King has been promoted to Global Community Relations Director for Siemens, a leading provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with 400,000 employees worldwide. Mr. King is the first person from the book to travel to the BVI to serve as faculty for the Virgin Gorda Youth Leadership Initiative. VGYLI’s mission to inspire and support young people to develop their full potential, broaden their horizons, strengthen their character and develop their leadership abilities so they can positively contribute to a better future for all people in Virgin Gorda. VGYLI uses the book and educational curriculum to prepare them to address social, environmental and economic issues and the jobs of the 21st century. Mr. King told the youth that there is a global shortage of engineers. “Each year we need 3 million engineers,” King explained. “China produces 644,000 engineers, India: 350,000, Japan: 110,000 Japan, 72,000, Germany: 32,000 Germany and U.K: 15,000 – plus other countries, that totals only 2 million.” Young people were curious to know what kinds of jobs they might get with an engineering degree. Marsha Reeves-Jews shared research from her forthcoming book, The Color of STEM about careers in the fields of science, technology, math and engineering. When she was President/Associate Publisher of Career Communications Group (CCG), Ms. Reeves-Jews managed all operations for the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference and the Black and Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology Magazines. While working with CCG, Ms. Reeves-Jews was the co-founder of the Women of Color Technology Awards Conference and Black Family Technology Awareness Week. “In addition to the traditional fields of chemical and biological engineers for the pharmaceutical industry, mechanical engineers for the space and defense industry, industrial engineers for the manufacturing and nano-technology industries,” she explained, “there are the new fields of environmental engineers for sustainable development. With President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to alternative energy, more jobs will be created by the time you graduate from college.” 15-year-old Saskieya Buckley’s dream is to be in the field of science. She’s not yet sure what career. Mr. King and Ms. Reeves-Jews will be among the prestigious faculty for the VGYLI Youth Summit for Sustainable Development. Held at the Bitter End Yacht Club, the Youth Summit will bring together youth from Virgin Gorda and the BVI with delegates from other Caribbean islands as well as urban, suburban, rural and island U.S. communities. Young people interested in serving as delegates from Anegada, Jost Van Dyke and Tortola are invited to Orientation on Friday, Dec. 12 from 5-7 p.m. For more information please email soup4world@aol.com. Sponsors are invited to nominate youth. VGYLI was formed in 2006 by youth, local citizens, business, churches, education and government leaders who are concerned for the island’s youth. The Stone Soup Leadership Institute provides technical assistance and training to VGYLI and develops public-private partnerships to help prepare Virgin Gorda youth to become leaders of the 21st century. The Institute is a 501 (c3) educational organization founded in 1997 that develops tools, programs and youth-community initiatives that honor everyday heroes and train future and emerging leaders to work together to build a better world. Hulas King is a founding board member of the Stone Soup Leadership Institute, served as faculty for the Cincinnati Youth-Community Initiative and presented the Institute’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award at the Celebration of Heroes with Walter Cronkite. VGYLI is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the BVI, The Office of the Governor of the BVI, jetBlue and Virgin Gorda in-kind sponsors: A Dream Come True Villa, Bitter End Yacht Club, Hertz Car Rental, and The Mineshaft Café. Special thanks to the Virgin Gorda campus of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College for hosting the event. Virgin Gorda Youth Leadership Initiative |