Georgetown, Guyana – (May 16, 2019) Minister of State, Mrs. Dawn Hastings-Williams, this morning, received a courtesy call from a group of students from the Clayton State University, Georgia, United States of America, who are currently on a tour of Guyana. During the meeting, which was held at the Ministry of the Presidency, some of the students expressed an interest in returning to Guyana to lecture at the University of Guyana.
The Minister of State said that she is grateful that the students are interested in Guyana’s development.
“I can’t express how happy I am to have a lot of students coming into Guyana and to hear about your willingness to come and work here if you are granted that opportunity that is so nice… His Excellency [President David Granger] would say, we don’t need barrels anymore we need your brains… so we need a lot of psychologists and other professionals which can help to grow and develop Guyana,” she said.
The group was led by Founder of Caribbean People International Collective, Incorporated (CPIC), Councillor of the Municipality of Georgetown and local Psychologist, Dr. Dawn Stewart. Dr. Stewart said that she facilitates student exchanges between Guyana and the United States through her non-governmental organisation.
“My goal is empowering women in Guyana …and to be able to get exchange programmes so that we can learn from each other and be able to grow in our Universities… I just happened to be on the task force at the University of Guyana that set up the Psychology Department which is needed at the University of Guyana… hence the reason for my psychologists here. For us to be able to address the current issues of mental illness within our country… and hopefully they will come back and help us to teach at the University level because we need professors,” she said.
Ms. Dominique Woods, who is currently studying her Masters of Science in Clinical and Counselling Psychology at the Clayton State University said that she could envision returning here to teach. “Part of the reason I came to Guyana was to learn about the culture. I think to be a good therapist, it is also important to know about the culture of others and I’m also looking into the possibility of maybe teaching.”
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