KLF selected 6 student-athletes from St. Vincent & the Grenadines to bring to Orlando, Florida for 2 weeks of basketball and learning. Read about their experience in their own words!
We saved the best for last - on their last day, the kids took a special tour of University of Central Florida and then went to watch Cirque du Soleil. Below are two of the most thoughtful journal entries almost in their entirety. Our deepest thanks to the College of Business Administration (Anne Marie de Govia) and Caribbean Students Association for putting together such an inspiring tour.
 Jemmie: Well today was the most interesting day of my two weeks. I got up around 6:00am went by a store and ate something for breakfast which was very good. Then we got back in the car and ate breakfast in there. Then we go to the University of Central Florida. After we arrive at UCF there were two people, students of the UCF, their names were Nicole and Mark, who were with us the whole time. We follow them to Ms. Anne Marie’s office where we were welcomed with food and drinks. That made me feel good. Then I took a seat and Mr. Mark Hartman, the Recruitment Coordinator, who was telling us about UCF and how it developed. He started to show us some pictures. Its first name was originally named Florida Technological University, and it first opened in 1968. It is the 3rd largest university in the USA.
Then there were some other students from the Caribbean who came to talk about their experiences, which was really nice. When they started talking and telling me how they came [to UCF], how they stand up for themselves, that made me feel good. The only thing I am interested in now is putting my full potential to university. They really made me feel like successfully to working hard to get my grades up. I learned a lot of things from them. Then Ms. Daren Caine Immigration Advisor say we can call her anytime, she will be glad to help.
After that we visited the computer testing lab where a lot of students took their test. Over 200 people can fit in one room with computers. After, we went to eat lunch at the cafeteria style it’s all-you-can-eat so it’s real fun. Then we went around campus to see all the different building like the health center, engineering, theatre, chemistry, the UCF Book Store where you can find all your books, library, the college of sciences, student union, psychology and other stuff. They have about 10,000 seat arena. They also play almost all sports, they provide housing facilities on campus and off-campus. It [the tour] was an experience of a lifetime. I am determined to work hard for my next two years. Before finishing up we had some more people who came and talk us about Sport Business Management [degree]. His name is Kelyn, he was telling us about sports and that’s very important for us because we play basketball. That might be one way to get into UCF, you have to be competitive. So UCF is a very smart university and I like it. I want to come back up to go to UCF in a few years.
Around 5:30pm we went back to the car to go to a live show which I enjoyed the most. This show is called the Cirque du Soleil where there are live tricks. The performers were very talented. I really enjoyed what I saw and I was impressed by them. Then we went to have dinner. I can’t remember the name of the place [Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse], but it has nice food and it’s Adonal’s favorite place to eat dinner, so that is why he carried us there. Before dinner we started to thank Shiyana and Adonal for making the day a big success and I hope I carry down what I learn and share with others because I am very glad to be a KLF Student-Athlete and always will be. Thank you for everything and hope I see you again.
 Leandru: Today was one of the greatest learning experiences of our lives. It was memorable and we are all grateful for what happened and who took the time out to be there for us. We started off early. We then went to the University of Central Florida which is the third biggest in the States. Our trip consisted of a tour of the campus and a meeting with some of the Caribbean students who attend the school. [They told us] how they felt as an individuals who came from their island to like this whole new world of large classrooms and difference in climate. As I listened to one of the girls who was speaking, she said you will have fun on campus and enjoy activities but make sure you “get your business taken care of.” And this was repeated by Tavia , that was the first thing that I learned because I don’t do that and I saw in her the desire of education even though she was on an athletic scholarship.
After that we left and started the tour of the university. There were many plaques and names and things I haven’t seen before. I also learned that in universities they take their no cheating policies strictly. I saw that they had a computer that could see what each student was doing because they take their exams on a computer and the man outside can zoom in on his computer to see what the students are writing. After we left and took a tour there were a lot of fantastic things there, I did not know that professors have cameras so that the things that he is teaching can be projected.
 We then went and have lunch. The food was great but I got a little tired of it from the past two weeks it was two pizzas and a cheeseburger. We also went and saw the new arena that they have and it has a full-size basketball court. When we went and saw it there were about 12 groups of cheerleaders [practicing there].
After the wonderful day with Marc, Nicole and the others, we headed to Adonal’s and then to see a clownish, acrobatic show called Cirque du Soleil. This play astounded me. People were doing all kinds of flips. There were these two guys on bikes, one did so many things with a BMX bike I thought the people were robots. The other guy on the bike was jumping it and made it jump over two people. When the play was over we were all astounded and wanted to see it again.
We then went to Adonal’s favourite place to eat and we were all saying thank you to him and Shiyana for giving us this opportunity and making us set goals because we do not know what we want in life and by setting the goals we would know what to do. I respect what Adonal and also Shiyana have done for us, and I hope that they continue this program so others can get this exciting yet full of learning experience. After dinner we came here to write in our journals and go to bed, for departure at 4:00 in the morning.
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