Hundreds of family members and friends came to see seventy-three students from the International College of the Cayman Islands (ICCI) graduate at the Family Life Centre in George Town.

The graduates, many of whom had juggled full-time jobs with family commitments while attending school, received degrees at the associates, bachelors and masters level. Nine received a masters degree in Business Administration, three received a masters degree in human Resources, 23 received bachelors degrees, and 39 associate degrees.

In his keynote speech, Canover Watson, Managing Director of Admiral Administration Ltd, spoke about the increasingly competitive, globalised jobs marketplace:

“As Cayman connects with the outside world, our young people must be prepared to work alongside not just people here in Cayman, but they must be prepared to work with people from all over the world,”

“As a result more jobs are going to require a college education or some kind of technical skills because the reality of globalisation is that our young people do not only have to be the best at what you do in Cayman, but they have to be the best at what you do in the entire world.”

International College student speaker, Kadian Taylor, who received a bachelors degree in International Finance said: “We won’t always know what career path to choose or where we go from here. But if we stay away from the career paths we don’t want or stay way from those things we don’t like, we will be just fine. We might even surprise ourselves having discovered that by staying away from what we do not want, we arrive at where we needed to be.”

Several graduates received additional honours such as the James M. Bodden Memorial Award presented to Kimari Fletcher Barrett for exemplifying the spirit of volunteerism.

Kadian Smith Taylor also received the Ernst & Young Award as the bachelor degree graduate with the highest GPA.

The Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants gave awards to Donnalissa Thorpe as the associate degree recipient and Paula Cribb as the bachelor degree recipient for the highest GPA in accounting.

(Photos by: Christopher Tobutt)

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