{"id":15621,"date":"2018-12-21T15:58:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T15:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=15621"},"modified":"2018-12-21T16:00:52","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:00:52","slug":"bahamian-alumni-celebrate-fiu-connection-before-bowl-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2018\/12\/21\/bahamian-alumni-celebrate-fiu-connection-before-bowl-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahamian alumni celebrate FIU connection before bowl game"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Drucker ’18
\n<\/em>Reporting from the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl in Nassau, Bahamas<\/em><\/p>\n

When the football team found out they were going to the\u00a0Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl<\/a>, the locker room erupted with excitement.<\/p>\n

While the team\u2019s trip to the Bahamas is certainly unique, it is not FIU\u2019s first connection to the country, nor will it be the last. In fact, an entire FIU community already exists in the Bahamas, and it\u2019s growing.<\/p>\n

FIU News<\/em>\u00a0connected with some Bahamian Panthers before the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl on Friday.<\/p>\n

Rhandi Elliot \u201913<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rhandi Elliot<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Elliott oversees employee programs and communications as the human resources manager at Atlantis, Paradise Island. He brings his experience at FIU, and his Panther pride, to the largest private employer in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2008, FIU was doing on-the-spot admissions at a Hilton property in the Bahamas. Elliot\u2019s mom encouraged him to attend. He brought his SAT scores and was accepted right there. Less than two months later, he was on campus studying international relations.<\/p>\n

Elliot became involved socially and academically on campus. He was the vice president of the\u00a0Caribbean Student Association<\/a>\u00a0and competed on the FIU Model United Nations team.<\/p>\n

He was also a big FIU football fan. He travelled to St. Petersburg to watch the Panthers play in a bowl game. After that, he was hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was waiting for us to have a good enough year [to be bowl eligible again], so I was excited when it was announced that FIU was coming to the Bahamas Bowl,\u201d Elliot said.<\/p>\n

After Elliot graduated, he began working at\u00a0Ignite, FIU\u2019s faculty and staff fundraising campaign<\/a>. He learned communication skills there that he still uses at Atlantis, Paradise Island today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing I would change about my college experience. There are a lot of students there who work hard, and it makes for a different kind of student,\u201d Elliot said. \u201cEven now, working in human resources, I know that they have a quality education and that they\u2019re willing to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia Chan BS \u201907, DPT \u201910<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Virginia Chan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Needless to say, FIU alumni in the Bahamas are excited for the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl.<\/p>\n

Chan is a physical therapist in Nassau. She attended every home game (and even some away games) as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited. I\u2019m actually closing my clinic that day. I\u2019m not seeing any patients, I\u2019m going to the game,\u201d Chan said.<\/p>\n

When Chan decided on attending FIU\u2014the convenience of a 30-minute flight was too good to turn down\u2014she embraced campus life. Chan held an executive board position on the Student Programming Council for two years, and later became their graduate assistant while working on her doctorate degree.<\/p>\n

She also found a second home in the Caribbean Student Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would make Bahamian food or Caribbean food. It helped a lot with the homesickness I might have had,\u201d Chan said.<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s back in the Bahamas, Chan hears about FIU more often than before she left. According to university records, there were 99 Bahamians enrolled in classes in Fall 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIU has a really big group of Bahamian students, but I think it\u2019s getting even more popular now. They\u2019re starting to hear the name a little more,\u201d said Chan.<\/p>\n

Schevon Miller \u201992<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Schevon Miller<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Miller is a senior manager for CIBC Trust Company [Bahamas]. A native of Nassau, she had FIU on her radar after graduating with her associate\u2019s degree from the College of the Bahamas. Miller was interested in studying international marketing and business so that she could promote tourism in her home country.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, her uncle sold her on FIU. He was the general manger of Bahamas Air and a proud FIU alumnus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought that FIU would be the perfect fit for me. I really respected his view and I applied,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Miller lived the full on-campus experience. She cheered on the Panthers at soccer and football games, participated in the Caribbean Student Association and Black Student Union and worked as a residential assistant.<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s happy to see more young people from the Bahamas paying attention to FIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIU is on the list of a lot of students who are coming out of high school. The university is definitely out there as far as consideration goes for those that do their undergraduate here and want to do their Masters abroad,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

Gadville McDonald \u201995<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gadville, the executive director of the National Training Agency of the Bahamas, did not live on campus when he was an accounting student. Instead, he lived at an off-campus complex with other students from the Bahamas. They called their group \u201cThe Bahamian Connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his neighbors were focused on bringing Bahamians to FIU and making them feel comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very much connected with registration to make sure we provided as much information as possible to incoming students to make sure they had the accommodations they needed,\u201d said McDonald, who was also vice president of the Student Government Association.<\/p>\n

As a professional, he is still focused on acclimating Bahamians into new roles. His National Training Agency, a government-funded organization, focuses on giving natives of the Bahamas the skills they need to acquire jobs in the workforce.<\/p>\n

They concentrate on people ages 16 to 30 years old. They have a 54 percent success rate of placing Bahamians in jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have phenomenal success stories. Currently, we are training some 900 at-risk young people. Their lives are being transformed,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n

Directing the National Training Agency, which is still in its beginning years, takes a breadth of skills. He learned many of them at FIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how to communicate effectively, how to get along with individuals, how to resolve conflicts. I can give back to my country as a result of what I learned at FIU,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, McDonald will also be going to the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl to root on his alma mater. For him, just like many other Bahamian Panthers, not going wasn\u2019t in question.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on FIU News.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Drucker ’18 Reporting from the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl in Nassau, Bahamas When the football team found out they were going to the\u00a0Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl, the locker room erupted with excitement. While the team\u2019s trip to the Bahamas is certainly unique, it is not FIU\u2019s first connection to the country, nor will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[367],"tags":[437,438,12,310,74,439,307],"class_list":["post-15621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-network-news","tag-bahamas","tag-bahamas-alumni","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-fiu-athletics","tag-football","tag-makers-wanted-bahamas-bowl","tag-panther-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15625,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621\/revisions\/15625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}