Barbudan Kendra Beazer continues to bask in the historic achievement of being named as a King’s Commonwealth Fellow under the distinguished King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme PhD Pathway, administered by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

The programme, established under the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III, aims to empower emerging leaders and professionals from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who are committed to advancing solutions in critical areas such as climate resilience, education, health, and engineering.

For someone from a small island, this selection is monumental, a sentiment, Beazer also shares.

He added that with the fact that small islands continue to feel the negative impact of climate change, an opportunity like this one can aid in changing that scenario.

“It means the world, to be fair, because, as you would have mentioned, we are recipients of, well, not so much terms, but you would have alluded to the fact that we’ve been often excluded but I wanted to go so far as we are the main recipients of the negative impacts of climate change and other natural disasters and we’re the least contributors to these global issues.

“So, it is important for small island states like us to have a seat at the decision-making table, the table where conversations are had about these issues. So, this in itself, is an example of that. Allowing a small island representative to have a seat where these global conversations are being had so that they can have a clear understanding as to what the effects are on the ground and how to go about addressing them,” Beazer said on state media earlier this week.

Through this Fellowship, Beazer will pursue advanced research and doctoral studies under joint supervision between his home institution- UWI and a partner university within the Commonwealth network, Oxford.

His work will contribute directly to sustainable development initiatives in Antigua and Barbuda, reinforcing national and regional efforts to build climate-resilient, knowledge-based communities.

Ironically, Beazer had no intentions of applying but after some encouragement from his peers, he took the leap.

“Actually, a colleague of mine referred me to this fellowship and knowing myself, I often underestimate myself because I’m from a small place, I’m not seeing any physical representation of myself in these spaces. You’ll hear about a Barbudan here and there, but you’re not actually seeing them. So, for me, having that mindset kind of stopped me from wanting to apply in the first place but after praying and reflecting, I decided just submitted an application and I received a strong recommendation along with my application, which I think also took me over the threshold to be selected.

“So, yeah, originally, I was basically basing it off of what I’ve seen throughout my life and my personal experiences with opportunities in general that prohibited me from submitting an early application but after praying and reflecting, I decided to go for it and I’m grateful that I actually did,” he explained.

The programme, established under the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III, aims to empower emerging leaders and professionals from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who are committed to advancing solutions in critical areas such as climate resilience, education, health, and engineering.