Colgate study groups allow students to study off campus for a semester while immersing themselves in new cultures, perspectives, and experiences.
Last semester, a group of students in Colgate’s Africana and Latin American Studies Program studied at the University of the West Indies at Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Mona campus was once the location of a sugarcane plantation. The architectural remains of aqueducts, cottages, and a water wheel highlight this history. The campus also served as a refugee camp, offering refuge to evacuees from the island of Gibraltar and later to Jewish refugees during World War II.
At the University of the West Indies at Mona, Colgate students took two courses of their choice. They studied and lived with undergraduate and graduate students from Jamaica, the wider Caribbean, and with other international students from Europe and North America. Colgate students also took two courses taught by the leader of the study group: .
Colgate students became involved at the university and in the larger Kingston community. Jordan and Jared Henderson ’17, Jabari Ajao ’18, and Taylor Bailey ’18 joined their residence hall’s basketball team, playing alongside other UWI students. Ané Wanliss ’18 and Jessica Pearce ’18 enrolled in an educational studies course that required them to mentor at-risk students at the Papine High School in Kingston, Jamaica.
To supplement their study of Jamaican culture, Professor Page led numerous trips across the island.
The study group took a day trip to Devon House Mansion, built in 1881 by Jamaica’s first black millionaire and philanthropist, George Stiebel. The house is now used for tours and art exhibitions. Colgate students toured the landmark, visited the Jamaica Biennial art exhibition, and ate Devon House Ice Cream — rated as some of the world’s best by National Geographic.
The group also journeyed to Moore Town, in the Rio Grande Valley of the eastern parish of Portland. There, they met with linguist professor Hubert Devonish to witness what they had studied about language in Jamaica and the role of Maroon communities.