The education of Dr Luz Longsworth

SHE’S a workaholic with a strange sense of humour she calls dry wit, and she’s also focused and passionate about her work in academia and with young people.

Born in Venezuela but raised in Jamaica, Dr Luz Longsworth tells All Woman that while studying at the University of the West Indies (UWI) her intentions were to become a United Nations interpreter, but she fell in love with academia.

And so, armed with a first degree in Spanish and French and a master’s in Hispanic studies from Queen’s University in Canada, her academic career began in the then Faculty of Arts and General Studies at UWI. But, as fate would have it, Dr Longsworth’s career took what she described as a zig-zag path.

“I started off in academia, moved into senior administration, left the university and joined a family business, La Moda Export Ltd, where I took over as general manager and I was there for four years. We had 500 employees and that was the experience that taught me the most about managing people and how to handle an organisation,” she says.

However, Dr Longsworth explains that she still hankered after the university and returned, as its main purpose — education — was akin to her personal philosophy.

“It’s not so much what it [university] can do for you as an individual, but what it can do for the country in terms of development and creating a cadre of people who can make a difference in the country and region. It is very much in line with my own philosophy that education is the way forward, the way out of poverty, out of mediocrity, the way to develop yourself and others, and that’s why I kept going back,” she explains.

But in 1996 her career path again changed course when she left Jamaica for the British Virgin Islands with her family and entered the private sector, working in offshore finances. However, still pining after academia, she spent four years in the private sector, moved to Belize with her family, and taught at the University of Belize before returning to UWI in 2004. She has remained there since.

Dr Longsworth, once the director of the UWI Western Jamaica Campus, was appointed principal of the UWI Open Campus in May, which she admits is an exciting course for her career as it moves the university into a new era and fosters academic development as well as greater development for youth — her two passions.

“Despite what anyone would say, a tertiary education is what can propel change in a person, and that change can affect a family, a community, a town, a city, a country, a region, the world. The developed nations and those viewed as highly competitive — there’s a correlation with their level of education. Those are the nations that have over 50 per cent of their people with tertiary education. We are not there in the Caribbean yet, and I feel passionate that the UWI, being the oldest such institution in the English-speaking Caribbean, has the obligation to lead that thrust in multiple ways. My campus’ mandate is to see how we can use the technology, pull the UWI’s wealth of knowledge together, to offer it to an even wider audience of people within the region who might not be able to come to a physical campus in order to spread the knowledge base and development of that region.”

As for youth development, Dr Longsworth says the youth are the present and she’s passionate about using her life experiences to guide them, as they are the resources that will determine how much the country develops.

“I love the energy of young people, the creativity and innovation, plus I like to work with young staff. I love to train young people in leadership skills because they’re the present, they aren’t the future. Lend them support and guidance. If you don’t help them you don’t care about the development of your country,” she says.

Dr Longsworth adds: “I started life as a teacher and I’m always going to be one. Just standing in a classroom and seeing something change in the eyes of young people in front of you; just seeing that light go on in their eyes to say I get it, that’s exciting. Young people are searching, looking for a direction. I’m passionate about being there to guide, share my experience and tell them what has moved me along in my own path.”

And as it relates to being unsure and afraid to explore new horizons, Dr Longsworth’s message to young people is to be fearless.

She says: “My career path took me in areas I think I shouldn’t have been in. Have no fear of exploring areas you weren’t thinking of doing. Your life is a journey and even if you have to have a dream deferred, don’t give up on it. When I left Jamaica and went into offshore finances I had no knowledge of it, but I had a good education and I had some skills they found useful, and before long I was a manager. Embrace every opportunity even if it looks like it’s taking you off the path you want. It can take you into exciting things.”

Dr Longsworth, who considers herself a John Maxwell (the leadership writer) girl, is inspired by his teachings and uses them in her own discourse as she believes that everything should be people-centred or it’s useless. She also looks up to her mother Dorothy Over and admires her pragmatic approach to life and her management skills. In academia she says Sir Hilary Beckles has paved a way which she emulates, and believes everyone in education should take a leaf from his book.

She also enjoys incorporating the community in her line of work and while she served at the western campus in Montego Bay, she helped to start the Mobay City Run to provide scholarships for youth. As a Roman Catholic she was also involved in the Good Shepherd Foundation and while living in Belize she worked with the elderly and youth at risk.

Longsworth, who now resides in Barbados, says she is still trying to find her niche in that country, but has a particular interest in seeing how she can help men move out of disengagement and become reengaged in a learning environment.

“That’s an issue in the Caribbean. I’m exploring ways we can find a format to bring young men back in the classroom to excite them about learning again,” she says.

She also enjoys family time with her children Marissa and Bradson who she boasts chose to go to UWI; going to the beach, reading, meditation and yoga and travelling.