By John Denny

Observer Reporter

(Stoney Grove, Nevis) – Junior Minister Dwight Cozier made several donations to the Sixth Form College last week. Most notable was a $5,000 donation to help defray the cost of the trip to St. Maarten for the debate team. In attendance at the handing over ceremony was also: Legal Counsel for the Administration Patrice Nisbett; Permanent Secretary Dwight Morton and Principal Edson Elliot.

Both Junior Minister Cozier and Counselor Nisbett are graduates of Charlestown Secondary School.

“I am here to congratulate the Literary and Debating Society of the Charlestown Secondary and Sixth Form on their mission to St. Maarten,” said Minister Cozier. “I believe this contribution will go a long way, not only to defray costs of the mission to St Maarten, but to set an example as to the importance of education and the importance of investing in you, the young people.”

The Junior Minister spent several minutes interviewing some of the Sixth Formers before the ceremony and found that they had a myriad of different career paths they were seeking.

“I learned on gentleman is going to become a pilot,” said Cozier. “Another is going to study accounting, one wants a career in Media… and one wants a career in architecture. That shows very good potential and very good promise coming from this school.”

He added that part of the donation was coming from his wife Angela who is also a practicing attorney in the firm they own. Angela Cozier was also the first state scholar to graduate from the Sixth Form at CSS.

Also at the ceremony, the Junior Minister presented a book to the library authored by him self which includes his masters thesis on international, corporate and international law. The book is a comparison of the financial services law among OECS states, the Bahamas and Barbados and the financial sector in Ireland.

“It has a very thorough outlay of the historics of the financial services world,” he said.

He told the Sixth formers that the offshore financial sector may seem a bit confusing, but his book would help clear up the concept and thereby open the door for some of them to seek a career in the financial industry. He also brought several copies, so the students would not have to fight over just one.

Minister Cozier studied law by a method called flexible learning at Hollborn College in England, he said and as part of the ceremony, he donated several copies of a book from that school describing the method and discussing the opportunities of attending that institution. There are presently over 20 students from the Federation attending Hollborn as a result of Cozier’s representation. Hollborn College is a good school for the study of law and business, Cozier said.

A subscription to the Parliamentarian Magazine from the Commonwealth Parliamentarian Association was also donated to the library. The idea for this donation was from Permanent Secretary Dwight Morton, who is also the Clerk for the Nevis Island Assembly.

“A couple of years ago we had a youth parliament and we want to re-introduce that,” said Morton. “We want to target Sixth Formers because you are the ones that hopefully will want to go to Parliament shortly. Parliament is yearning for persons that have the aptitude and for persons who want to go and represent. I believe we have the persons with the skills that will someday become a member of the Nevis Island Assembly Parliament.”

Recently, some young Nevisians went to England and others went to Australia for attachments with their Parliaments, he said.

Debating is the core of Parliament and Cozier, Nisbett and Morton all agreed and they encouraged all the Sixth Formers to consider a future in politics.

Counselor Nisbett represents the Federal Parliament in the National Assembly and he also spoke to the Sixth Formers.

“I want to use this opportunity to encourage you to get interested in the youth parliamentarian organization,” said Nisbett. “I believe the sixth Formers are the right pool of talent from which we should draw. You are the future leaders of tomorrow and someday I hope to see you on the TV debating in the Parliament.”