Out of all the places Selvon Waldron could have chosen to go to college, he decided to attend the University of the District of Columbia. Why UDC? Selvon explains. “Living in Trinidad and Tobago I have always wanted to come to Washington, DC. As everyone knows Washington is the capitol and seat of the free world and I have always aspired to come here. I had a lot of interest in Political Science and Business and I thought Washington, DC would be a perfect location to absorb all of my knowledge about politics and business,” he says.
“Also, I viewed it on the internet and it just seemed as a wonderful place to settle down and learn. The university as I heard before I came here is also a great place for international students to learn. It has over one hundred different countries studying here and the culture here at the university is just a great one. You can learn from folks living from Turkey to Kingston. Students are from different countries and it is just a beautiful place to absorb different cultures and get a degree in Business Management.”
Selvon has been living in the District of Columbia for three years. He is finishing up his third year at the University where he has a double major. “I am actually a double major in Business Management and Political Science. I combined those two majors one because I had life long interest in politics and two, added the business management side because I am now aspiring to be a corporate lawyer,” he says.
“I combined these two majors here to have a broaden view about both politics and business, but my long term goal is to go into the field of law. I think those two majors give me a wide range of knowledge about two different majors, two different degrees, but at the end it all works towards a goal of corporate law.”
There are many extra- curricular activities Selvon belongs to and each one in some way or another blend in with his academics. “Currently, I sit on the Board of Trustees for the university. I am the only student that sits on the board of sixty members. On this board I sit on committees as well, student affairs committee, the facilities committee the academic committee. I do a lot with my major the management side of the major as well as a part of my political science studies here,” he says.
“I’ve learned a lot about managing. About long term planning and strategically planning and tactical planning which will help me in the long run. It makes my studying of Business Management much easier. I am learning from experts in the field as oppose to the board of trustees. It makes my studies and classes that will come much easier for me as I learned from sixty-nine members on the board of trustees who have a careers who have long term and law and management and they own their own companies. So just learning from them as made my studies so much easier."
The twenty-two year old says he initially had a few preconceived notions about coming here, but attending UDC has changed all that. “The UDC has well exceeded my expectations. The university, the professors here, the administration… everyone is just so helpful and warm. It is sort of like a little community of its own. Sort of an imitation of Washington where so many cultures meet and greet and live together,” he says.
“Typically sound and culturally diverse. Just a great place to live and learn cultures as well as learn education from professors. The classrooms are small so I can have a one on one relationship with students. Still I can bond together because so easily because of the small classrooms. So it has exceeded my expectations. It has made me very energetic to learn here and I came here with misconceptions. When I got here, it had all changed.”
Selvon will graduate May 2008. After that he is interested in going to Law school here in the U.S. His long-term goal is to become a general counsel for a major cooperation.