NY Alumni Association celebrates 40 years of co-ed at QC

Apr 22, 2015 News

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– to honour four distinguished females
The Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association (NY), Inc., (QCAANY), yesterday announced

its Weekend of Celebration from April 24th-26th, 2015, saluting 40 years of co-education and enrollment of girls at the 170-year old institution.
The marquee event of the celebration will be a Black-Tie Gala Dinner and Dance to be held on April 25th at Terrace On The Park in Queens, NY, under the patronage of Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Bayney Karran, himself a Queen’s College alumnus.
The special guest and speaker will be Clarence I. Trotz, the Headmaster in 1975 when the first young women entered Queen’s College as students.
The event’s honorees are four women, selected for their scholarly, professional and humanitarian accomplishments and for their exemplary service to Queen’s College and Guyana.
According to a statement from the association, the 2015 honorees are Dr. Michelle Mickle- Foster, Dawn Holder-Alert, Amlata Persaud and Dr. Alissa Trotz.
Dr. Foster is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KISRA, a faith-motivated non-profit organization in West Virginia, US, whose work was recognized in 2012 as a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama.  Additionally, she participated in a number of programs aimed at expanding opportunities for QC students.  Among these efforts, she recently led a partnership with West Virginia State University to conduct a college recruitment initiative at QC in February 2015.

She has also spearheaded a multi-faceted needs assessment of the Camp Road school.
Holder-Alert is a former executive of QC’s Old Students Association.  Among other contributions, she single-handedly crafted documentation showcasing the accomplishments of scores of distinguished alumni over the years.
A lawyer by profession, her representation and civic involvement in Guyana have been varied and numerous; she has represented the Guyana Bar Association at the Linden Commission of Inquiry, served as Vice President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation, and is a prominent member of the both Guyana Bar Association and the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers.
Amlata Persaud is a Doctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, pursuing an Ed.D degree in International Education Development. “Her research is centered on education policy-making and early childhood education in the Caribbean.  Prior to enrolling at Columbia University, Ms. Persaud, Guyana’s first female Rhodes Scholar, was a consultant on Guyana’s national Millennium Development Goals Progress Report, and later served as the Head of the national program for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), with specific responsibility for piloting M&E development in the education and health sectors.”
Dr. Trotz, the association said, is an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, and is also Associate Faculty at the Dame Nita Barrow Institute for Gender and

Development West Indies.
“An eminent scholar and educator, Dr. Trotz was appointed in 2013 to the President’s Teaching Academy, the highest recognition for teaching excellence at the University of Toronto. She is also recipient of the Guyana Cultural Association Award (New York) for Leadership in Education and for the past seven years, she has edited a weekly newspaper column, In the Diaspora, in the Stabroek News. Dr. Trotz has been a member of Red Thread Women’s Organization in Guyana for the past two decades.
Enrollment of girls at Queen’s College occurred in 1975, approximately 141 years after the premier institution first opened its doors as an Anglican Church grammar school providing an elite education for boys. Girls who had excelled at the national Common Entrance examination in 1975 were admitted to 1st Form. Girls were transferred from Bishops’ High School into 2nd, 3rd, 5th and Lower 6th Forms.  Within two years, all forms were fully integrated.
Reflecting on a number of systemic changes at Queen’s College since 1975 – first and most important of these being coeducation – former Headmaster Clarence Trotz noted that once admitted, the girls quickly settled into the ways of the school, “competing fiercely with the boys for supremacy at all levels of academia, playing their full part in the life and activities of the institution.”
This sentiment was echoed by Mr. John Campbell, President of QCAANY, who was a student at the

school during the time that girls first enrolled.
“The breadth and range of accomplishments of QC alumnae were to be expected because QC girls were, and continue to be, among the very best students in Guyana and they continue to perform outstandingly in their chosen professions and endeavors in Guyana and elsewhere.”
This is evident from the number of highly accomplished alumnae from among whom this year’s four honorees were selected.
Headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, QCAANY is a 501(3) (c) non-profit organization established in August 1991. Its mission includes assuring the stability of Queen’s College and its ongoing contribution to academic excellence in Guyana, contributing financially and materially to the school, and associating with any other non-profit organizations involved in assisting Guyanese in Guyana and elsewhere.

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