Proud moment! Dr. O'Neal after receiving her PhD in Marine Biology from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Dr. O’Neal (second from right) with students at the University of the West Indies Campus (Mona Campus) in Trinidad in 2005.

Dr. O’Neal (second from right) with students at the University of the West Indies Campus (Mona Campus) in Trinidad in 2005.

HLSCC Lecturer, Dr. Cassander O'Neal

Dr. O’Neal (second from right) with students at the University of the West Indies Campus (Mona Campus) in Trinidad in 2005.

This Virgin Gorda daughter of the soil also made herself and Territory very proud in May when she earned her PhD in Marine Biology with special emphasis in pollution studies from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

This already decorated individual of whom we speak is Dr. Cassander Titley-O’Neal.

An initial product of the Bregado Flax Educational Centre (BFEC) in Virgin Gorda, Dr. O’Neal read for her Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina and attained her Masters of Applied Marine Science Degree at the University of Plymouth. She has been a Government appointed scientist and also did a stint at the Conservation and Fisheries Department.

Dr. O’Neal is currently a lecturer at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC), a profession she entered in 2001. She lectures in various Biology courses and Chemistry.

“I like to teach. I enjoy teaching. I think sometimes people need to have a teacher that they can relate to. To the teachers that were influential to me I try to use some of their techniques and how they approached teaching.”

Dr. O’Neal’s job takes her back and forth from Virgin Gorda to Tortola on a daily basis for her the travelling is never seen as strenuous as she loves to be on the water, something she did regularly with her late father, Amos Jerome, who she said would often take her to sea to fish and together they entered a lot of sport fishing tournaments. There her love for the environment and Marine Biology began. The teaching side of her she said came from her ‘militant’ mother, Barbara Titley, who was a teacher herself but is now a Labour Officer.

As a teacher, Dr. O’Neal said her motivation is seeing students of the HLSCC continuing to further their studies and to develop an appreciation for the environment and the need to be sustainable minded.

“For me that is one of the driving forces because I feel that the one class that we teach about the environment of the BVI, it is imperative for us to teach the younger generation that a lot of the things that we are doing is not benefitting us or our future generations and I feel that is where I can make an impact as opposed to being on the television telling the older ones because they are already set in their ways. So it is for me to educate the younger ones to tell them now we are doing things this way but in the long term it is not sustainable for our development. We need to look at things a little differently.”

Her views, she admitted, are sometimes taken as opposed to development, however, Dr. O’Neal clarified that she is not but is rather opposed to the manner in which developments are sometimes done.

Her best moments as a lecturer, Dr. O’Neal said, are graduation day and times when persons seek her for letters of recommendation to pursue further studies and also update her about their progress.

Dr. O’Neal considers her method of teaching as student oriented as the focus in the class room is not about her but about the students and the topic at hand. “I present information to them and we discuss how they see it or their views about it. It is not about forcing information down the student’s throat. If they don’t understand it and can’t apply it to real life then for me it is like I have not done what I needed to do as a teacher.”

As a lecturer and someone versed in Marine Biology, Dr. O’Neal is of the view that there is need for more scientific data collection. “We have a big ocean out there. There is research that needs to be done.”

But Dr. O’Neal, who also owns an environmental consulting company, is not just about lecturing but is also about putting into practice what she teaches on a daily basis.

In 2006 she began her own recycling company ‘Going Green on Gorda’ which was put on pause in the same year as she was given a scholarship from the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) via the Ministry of Education, Government of the Virgin Islands to further her studies. “Now that I am back I have started the necessary paper work and have been trying to seek funding to go ahead now with the project in its entirety by the end of this year.

The materials that would be collected for recycling include glass, aluminium cans, plastics and old tyres.

One of the objectives of the recycling company also is to involve the schools and making them understand that the burning of all garbage is not the sustainable thing to do. She said students would be encouraged also to collect the recyclable materials and deliver it to the company for a fee. Apprenticeship programmes would also be made available for students when school is on a break.

For someone like Dr. O’Neal who has lots of vision and the desire to succeed, this is just some of the brilliant ideas for her and the Territory as there are others that she is currently weighing.

In the meantime, her encouragement to youths and those who may wish to follow in her already successful footsteps is to start with putting God first in everything that they do.

“Seek the advice of someone who you are comfortable with and who you feel you could talk to without being judged. Always believe in yourself and speak positively about yourself because people may try to discourage you. I find a lot of people around here like to speak negatively and I find that they cloud a lot of the young people from going further with themselves. Be around people that are positive,” Dr. O’Neal advises.