Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1997-1998 index

Distributed March 26, 1998
Contact: Linda Mahdesian

Taking the Caribbean into the 21st century

Jamaica's prime minister to keynote regional Caribbean student forum

The Right Honorable P. J. Patterson, prime minister of Jamaica, will give the keynote address at the Sixth Annual Northeast Regional Caribbean Students Conference, April 10-12 on the Brown campus. Patterson's address will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, April 10, in Room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Students of Caribbean Ancestry at Brown University will host the Sixth Annual Northeast Regional Caribbean Students Conference in Providence, R.I., from Friday, April 10, through Sunday, April 12. This year's conference will look to the future: "2000: A Turning Point - For Better or For Worse?"

The keynote address at 7 p.m. Friday, April 10, will be given by the Right Honorable P.J. Patterson, prime minister of Jamaica. He will be speaking in Room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching, with live simulcast to Room 001. The lecture is free and open to the public. Saturday, April 11, will feature a full day of workshops and other forums which will attempt to help students of Caribbean heritage form networks with each other and invited guest speakers from universities across the nation and from the Caribbean. Registration for the workshops is limited to students, faculty and staff affiliated with a member organization or association in the network, regardless of their ancestry. To register or for more information, call Nicole Ali, conference chair, at 401/863-5648.

The Northeast Regional Caribbean Students Conference was first held at Northeastern University in Braintree, Mass., in 1993. Since then, the hosts have included SUNY-Buffalo, Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

P. J. Patterson

P. J. Patterson, prime minister of Jamaica, has served the People's National Party in numerous leadership positions including vice president (1969-82), chairman (1983-1992), and president (1992-present).

He attended the University of the West Indies at Mona and graduated in 1958 with a B.A. (honors) in English. He studied law at the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Leverhume Scholarship and the Sir Hughes Parry Prize for Excellence in the Law of Contracts. He graduated in 1963 with an LL.B.

In addition to serving as Prime Minister, Patterson also chairs CARICOM, the Caribbean Community and Common Market. He was named a recipient of the Order of Liberator Simon Bolivar First Class, Venezuela's highest honor awarded to a foreign official, on Sept. 1, 1992. He was also appointed as member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in December 1992, and has represented Jamaica at numerous international forums and conferences.

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