Dr Keith Nurse, the newly appointed President of the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts (COSTAATT), recently returned from a trip to the United States, where he attended the 25th Session of the United Nations, Committee for Development Policy (CDP) plenary held at UN Headquarters in New York. Dr Nurse is serving his third, three-year term on the 24-member committee that consists of experts nominated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Deliberations at the CDP meeting dealt with the pressing issue of external debt, voluntary national reviews, and other critical developmental challenges related to Least Developed Countries (LDC).

In his capacity as President of COSTAATT, Dr Nurse also visited a few other international organizations during his trip to tap into potential sources of funding for the College, seek academic programme support in cutting-edge areas, establish technological hubs, and build out projects for upskilling academies.

On February 27th, he met with Diego Angel-Urdinola, Senior Economist at the Education Division of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he discussed possibilities for accessing digital tools to evaluate teaching performance online.

Dr Nurse had several meetings with different departments of the Organization of the American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C..  On February 28th, he met with Betilde Munoz-Pogossian, Director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity- OAS. They discussed plans to host a lecture series and several workshops relating to Venezuelan migrants, including programmes to offer English as a second language in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as digital skills, and entrepreneurship. On this day, he also met with Adriana Ospina, Director of the OAS’s Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) and OAS Ambassador, Lilly Ching-Soto to discuss the potential role COSTAATT could play in attracting more Caribbean content to the AMA. Additionally, he held productive talks with Luis A. Viguria-Chief Executive Officer of the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) and Ambassador Jacinth Henry-Martin, relating to potential sources of funding for creating an upskilling academy to improve entrepreneurship amongst Trinidad and Tobago’s youth.

While at the OAS, Dr Nurse also met with Jesus Shucry Giacoman Zapata, Director, Department of Human Development, Education and Employment regarding the commercialization of COSTAATT’s academic programmes, as well as the utilization of the ProFuturo digital education programme to aid teaching in Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr Nurse paid a visit to the Executive Director to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, Robert Le Hunte.  They discussed ways in which COSTAATT’s educational programmes could play a part in addressing regional issues of crime, human trafficking and food security.

Dr Keith Nurse’s visit to the United States and his meetings with various international organizations demonstrate his commitment to the development of COSTAATT and its role in promoting education, technology, and entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago. His participation in the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) plenary affirms his strong interest and dedication to global development issues, international collaboration and the opportunities created thereby for meaningful change.

Dr Nurse’s engagement with the World Bank, the OAS, and the IDB highlights a concerted effort to build strategic partnerships to support the growth of COSTAATT and expand its impact. With his leadership, COSTAATT is poised to become a hub for cutting-edge education, technology, and innovation, driving economic growth and social progress in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region.