It was strange almost surreal to be back on campus after a six year hiatus, but the familiar surroundings...and faces, at UWI St. Augustine, brought a calming reassurance that this was an opportunity to be embraced. My Undergraduate years had indeed been enjoyable and fruitful. However the call of service to country had temporarily severed my ties to UWI. Nevertheless my attempt to find answers to the many, often times haunting questions posed by colleagues, friends and my former professors had served to steer me towards graduate studies. I elected to do an MPhil in Literatures in English with special interest in the work of my countryman Derek Alton Walcott who had given so much literary wealth to St. Lucia, the Caribbean and the world.

I had become intrigued with Walcott’s genius in my early beginnings as a teacher in St. Lucia and this extended to my undergraduate years at UWI St. Augustine. There I availed myself of every opportunity to learn more of this man and his work. As a graduate teacher at his Alma Mater I shared my passion with hoards of eager boys burning with talent and creativity. Our school, St. Mary’s College became well known for the successful execution of extracts from Walcott’s plays and poems. It thus seemed a natural progression to devote my further studies to an area that had brought me immense personal satisfaction.

My immersion into graduate studies was far from problem free. I had waited some six years after my first degree for that perfect opportunity. Being from a non-Campus territory, usually, such opportunities manifest themselves as illusive windows in the passage of time which one is sure to miss if not alert enough to catch the light of its opening.

And so I did...I arrived here in January of 2004 a semester after the scheduled start of my graduate programme. I had selected this option in lieu of a September start, but was to discover that such an option, was no longer offered by the University, despite the statement outlined in the Campus Prospectus. Ironically it was this turbulent start that served to strengthen my resolve that I was indeed on the designated path. It afforded me the unique opportunity to see the networking and problem solving capabilities of UWI in full operation. Everyone I interfaced with during that period, from administrative to academic staff was more than willing to assist and to reassure me that a solution was imminent. I became convinced that this noble institution was manned by a team of truly professional individuals.

Having seized the opportunity of a fresh start in September of 2004, I am in retrospect grateful for the experience .It has served to strengthen my resolve that I am an important asset to the university and that my presence here means something. I discovered a student friendly atmosphere where advice and encouragement was freely given. I had the good fortune of having a supervisor who not only expected the best, but also, was able to understand my limitations and to challenge me beyond boundaries where I feared to tread. I am truly indebted to my supervisor whose advice is available round the clock and who shares my vision. She never tires of my relentless queries and modifications nor my sporadic spells of excitement which may fizzle out with the same abruptness that generated it. It is my hope that such a good working relationship would lead to a successful completion of my degree.

My colleagues and I who are graduates of UWI often joked in our undergraduate years about the University experience at St. Augustine as one where we were negated as outsiders attending the “University Of Trinidad and Tobago”. I am pleased to report that being in the minority I have not experienced the level of alienation of which they speak as a graduate student at UWI. I am able to look beyond the boundaries of this experience to see myself, not only as a national of St. Lucia but as a citizen of the world. This has largely been because of my experience at UWI St. Augustine which has allowed me to bloom and open outwards.

I had looked forward to the weekly seminars held by the Liberal Arts Department during the first semester, in which graduate students got the opportunity to discuss relevant research interests and to share ideas pertinent to their area of study. It is my view that many more opportunities of this nature need to be provided for such contact and interfacing. In addition there is need for a Graduate Students Association, which can work in tandem with the Department of Graduate Studies so as to meet the needs of the growing graduate community. Opportunities for cross campus exchanges among the graduate population is yet another area to be developed. I am confident that UWI St. Augustine stands ready and poised to meet those challenges. I eagerly await them because I am eager to participate in them.

Gloria is a graduate student from St. Lucia who is currently doing her MPhil in Literature at the St. Augustine Campus.