KINGSTON, Jamaica— Culture Minister Olivia Grange has announced that as part of Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of Independence, the ministry will be selecting 60 students to be interns, individually matched to 60 companies within the creative sector.

Minister Grange made the disclosure at the second annual Jamaica Creative Career Expo on Thursday, February 9 at the Jamaica Conference Centre. The ministry stated that the expo, which is an initiative of Jamaica Creative— an entity of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport— was filled to near capacity as students from close to 30 secondary and tertiary schools across the island were in attendance.

“My Ministry wants to stimulate the continued exponential growth of the creative sector by causing you all to awaken and use your collective imagination and expressions. We will do so in a focused and measured way,” Grange said.

A panelist from the expo, Dr Miles Davis, President of Linfield University in Oregon, United States, also announced that his university will be offering five scholarships per year to students in Jamaica, beginning September 2023.

He stated that with the ministry’s help, these students will be identified with special attention being placed on those within the performing arts.

The ministry stated that while Dr Davis does not have Jamaican heritage, “he felt it was important to help students in the African diaspora no matter where they come from”.

“I believe on a very personal level, those of us in the diaspora who are in positions of responsibility to make decisions have to reach out and give back. Jamaica is a hotbed of creativity. And even though people know about reggae, they need to know about the other arts,” Dr Davis said.