Barbara Ellington, Public Affairs Editor
Starting
today, Dr Trevor Gardner becomes the 23rd president of the Seventh-day
Adventists' Northern Caribbean University (NCU), in Mandeville,
Manchester. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, of humble parentage, the
soft-spoken Dr Gardner grew up in what he describes as abject poverty in
Greenwich Town, Kingston and later moved from the seaside fishing
community to Bartons and Linstead in St Catherine up to age 15. Gardner
received his early education at Denham Town and Brown's Hall elementary
schools and Dinthill Technical High School. He went on to qualify as a
teacher at The Mico Teachers' College, followed by undergraduate and
postgraduate degrees at the University of the West Indies, Northern
Caribbean University, Andrews University, and Michigan State University.
While lauding the admirable legacy of his 22 predecessors, in his first interview in his new role, Gardner outlined to The Gleaner, his vision to move NCU from good to great in the following areas:
1.Maintain without compromise the same Seventh-day Adventist ethos that gave 106 years of stability to NCU.
2.
Move from good to great the things the university is good at, such as
theology and technology. "We must move technology out from the campus
into the rest of the nation. We are strong in liberal arts. Our
graduates have gone on to excel at law, architecture and other areas. We
must make that great," he said.
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