PROCESS ENSURES SUSTAINABILITY OF COOPERATION WITH CANADIAN INSTITUTIONS
MONEAGUE, St Ann; March 28, 2025
When two students from the Agro Processing course, at Moneague College presented their research findings it was the culminating stage of what is seen as the sustaining of a partnership between the college and three Canadian institutions.
A Research Symposium, at which they presented, marked the final event on Thursday, March 13, 2025, at the closing ceremony for the SAGE-05 programme. Skills to Access the Green Economy (SAGE-05) ran for five years and involved HEART Ebony Park Academy and Moneague College, St Ann in Jamaica, and the Colleges and Institutes of Canada (CiCan), Niagara College and College of the North Atlantic.
(Sani-Moi Small and Amoy Trowers presenting)
Head of Research at Moneague College Dr Khadijah Williams says she is proud that two students were able to present their class proposal at the SAGE Research Symposium at the college. Final year students in the Agro Processing course Amoy Trowers and Sani-Moi Small, presented their community-based Applied Research: “Measuring the Carbon Footprint at a Food Production Site.”
Several other research proposals were presented on the day.RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTED IN CANADA-SPONSORED PROGRAMME AT MONEAGUE COLLEGE & HEART EBONY PARK
(Celene Williams from HEART Ebony Park Academy on what the programme meant to her and others)
The students’ involvement in the Symposium came after several of them from HEART Ebony Park Academy and Moneague College gave testimonials about the benefits of the SAGE-05 programme to them. Some spoke glowingly about the training in Food Processing afforded at their institutions and its impact on their lives while others focussed on the opportunity to visit Canadian colleges, as part of the exchange component.
Dr Williams who lectures in the course, Applied Research for Agro Processing, says the students engaged in community research linked to climate smart practices as it relates to food processing. “It’s a very hands-on process to understand the concept of the green economy,” Dr Williams said.
(Kerry Ann Romans Lewin Moneague graduate speaking about the Food Processing programme’s effect on her life)
The course has exposed them to Applied Research — principles, proposal writing, methodology, ethics and data analysis.
She said for Moneague and like-minded educational institutions “That’s the way forward to make that kind of partnership sustainable. It continues in the education of the young” such as those doing the research.
(Proud students from HEART Ebony Park and Moneague College, stand with a display of products made by their colleagues , at the closing ceremony of the SAGE-05 Programme)
Dr Williams said for the students, applied research was now part of Moneague College’s “pedagogical framework.”
This is the first time they have been exposed to applied research and they actually practically implemented research.
The students, Trowers and Small, on behalf of the class, presented their research proposal and some of the preliminary findings.
Even though the data collection was completed, the work is not done as the students are still analysing the data and, so far, have only made preliminary findings.
Treval Fullerton was one of several speaking about his experience in Canada as part of the programme. WATCH:
