The Tribune

THE Alumni Associations of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in The Bahamas has announced that Michael Hemesath, president of Saint John’s University and Mary Hinton, the newly-appointed president of the College of Saint Benedict will visit The Bahamas early next year.

Mr Hemesath is the first lay-president of Saint John’s University, which was established 157 years ago, in 1857, and Ms Hinton is the first Afro-American president of the College of Saint Benedict, established in 1913.

Both institutions are in Minnestota, USA.

The announcement said that it was also significant that in 2015, St Augustine’s College, which was established by the Benedictine Monks of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota in 1945, and which has provided hundreds of students to both institutions over the years will be celebrating its 70th anniversary.

The newly appointed President of the College of The Bahamas Dr Rodney Smith is a graduate of both St Augustine’s College and Saint John’s University.

During the presidents’ visit, the combined Alumni Associations will host a banquet to achieve five objectives: to introduce Ms Hinton to the Bahamas; to receive an update from Mr Hemesath regarding developments at Saint John’s; to officially launch and raise funds for the Lou Adderley Scholarship Foundation, the funds of which will be tenable at both Saint John’s and St Ben’s; to confer the Colman J Barry Award on Lou Adderley (posthumously) and to recognise SAC’s 70th anniversary.

The banquet will be held on Saturday, February 7, at the Crown Ballroom of the Atlantis Resort.

Tickets for the banquet will be available for a contribution of $175 per person and the net proceeds from this event will be exclusively earmarked for the Lou Adderley Scholarship Foundation for students who will attend either Saint Ben’s or Saint John’s.

“We are especially motivated to raise as much as we can for the foundation because Saint John’s will match our contribution to the foundation, thereby doubling the funds that are available for educational funding at both the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University,” organisers of the event said.

“We expect that this historic joint visit by the presidents of these two institutions that have educated more than 1,200 Bahamians will further concretise the long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship between the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s and The Bahamas.”