The following is a message from Cayman Current editor and founder Patrick Brendel:
Dear readers,
Today we at the Cayman Current are pleased to make two important, and related, announcements.
Cayman Current journalist Kayla Young
The first is that the Current has hired our first staff journalist — Kayla Young.
Most of our readership will already be familiar with Kayla’s face and byline, through her work in print and online in the Cayman Islands over the past 5 years.
Kayla is a multimedia journalist who has worked in the Cayman Islands, United States and Chile. She moved to Grand Cayman after accepting a job at the Cayman Compass in 2016.
She has covered business, agriculture, environment and community news in English and Spanish. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, Kayla moved to Santiago, Chile, where she began covering student protests and breaking news.
In September 2019, Kayla participated in the Island Voices Journalism Campaign through the UN-OHRLLS and attended the United Nations General Assembly week to report on issues affecting small island developing states.
Please join me in welcoming Kayla into our growing Cayman Current community.
Kayla Young interviews Bahamas Minister of Tourism Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar in January 2020.
Our second announcement is that the Current is embarking on our first in-depth multimedia enterprise journalism project.
While we are at the very beginning stages of this project, our plan is to create a 6-part mini-documentary video series on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and STEM education.
Our goal is to complete the series and publish/broadcast it this fall.
In the series, we will explore 3 fundamental questions on this important subject:
- Are careers in TVET/STEM fields really where future opportunities are for Caymanians?
- Are there sufficient opportunities for TVET/STEM education for Caymanians?
- Given Cayman’s long history of ‘practical vocations’ such as farming, seamanship and construction, is there currently a stigma against TVET in favour of supposedly more ‘academic’ career paths?
We have secured basic funding for the project through the generosity of a donor, and we are engaged in discussions with other supporters to further enhance the quality and reach of the project. When sponsorship agreements are official, we will provide details on the sources of funding.
Our second announcement is related to the first because the TVET/STEM project will be spearheaded by Kayla. We are extremely fortunate to have found someone with her relevant skills and experience to lead this project, and someone who is already a member of Cayman’s society.
The TVET/STEM project will be Kayla’s primary responsibility in her role at the Cayman Current.
Additionally, however, Kayla is also working on a regional, collaborative climate change project with the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico (‘CPI’ in Spanish).
CPI is providing the financial support and editorial direction for Kayla’s climate change project, while the Cayman Current has agreed to publish the investigation, along with other participating media in the Caribbean.
If you are interested in contributing to the content of the TVET/STEM project or know someone we should talk to, please email Kayla at kyoung@caymancurrent.org.
Patrick Brendel, editor, Cayman Current
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for the TVET/STEM project or supporting the work of the Cayman Current generally, please email me at pbrendel@caymancurrent.org or visit our Donations Page.
Before I step back behind the metaphorical curtain, I would like to personally thank our supporters and you, the reader, for being a part of the Cayman Current community and empowering us in our mission to improve our country’s education system, for the betterment of Cayman’s children and future generations.
We’ll keep you up-to-date on the progress of our TVET/STEM project, as well as the public service education journalism we produce on a daily basis.
Kind regards,
Patrick
Patrick Brendel, Founder and Editor