Outstanding theses awarded during ceremony University of Aruba

October 06, 2011 9:55 AM

ORANJESTAD – No less than three students of the University of Aruba received special recognition for the quality of their theses. A tradition that started with law firm VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne.

The tradition has now extended to CATC and, for the first time, De Palm Corporation with its ‘Malmberg Family Award’, in which companies act as sponsors by rewarding effort and quality of students of the University of Aruba.
Yesterday, graduates Lorraine de Souza of the Faculty of Law, Melany Tromp of the Faculty of Finance and Economics, and Gloria Vega of the Hospitality Faculty all received their special awards for producing theses which really have drawn attention and received the highest of scores.

According to the President of the Board of Commissioners, Mr. Fred Gibbs, in a speech based upon his personal experience, writing a thesis isn’t just the acquisition of knowledge, but rather an achievement of internal motivation. “This helps everybody enormously in their professional careers”. Mr. Gibbs used a Dutch proverb meaning “Intelligence means a lot, but character means more”, in order to describe that, in spite of intelligence, without strong inner discipline no one can be successful in their business career.

“All of you have experienced how frustrating it is when just after writing a few chapters the thesis instructor tells you to change or rewrite them in order to further substantiate your point. This is where the student gets his preparation for inner discipline. For that reason, I would like to congratulate the prize winners”.

At the same time, the President of the Board of Trustees thanked the companies for their trust in the academic institution. Mr. Gibbs pleaded for not letting the recent news about the University of Aruba discourage their commitment to the institution. There has been a lot of talk about the management of the University, “but I can assure you that everything is under control”.

The President of the Board of Trustees informed the audience in the lecture hall of the University of Aruba he had received instructions from the Minister of Education, Mr. Arthur Dowers, to look for new members for the Board, in order to replace those who resigned a few weeks earlier. “And I can tell you that at this moment the names of three candidates are on the Minister’s desk for approval. As soon as these nominations are approved, I will introduce the new members of the Board of Trustees of the University of Aruba to the general public”.

The Executive Committee, together with the deans of the various faculties, will be in charge of the management of the University of Aruba until the new Rector, Dr. Glenn Thodé, will assume his duties as of January 2012.
What followed were the presentations of the deans of the faculties, Dr. Carlos Bollen of the Faculty of Law, Mr. Reint Schutter of the Faculty of Finance and Economics, and John Wardlaw of the Hospitality Faculty, who explained more about the graduates and the impressive research for their theses. As an example, Dr. Bollen told how Professor Elzinga urged Mrs. De Souza to further deepen her research on the rules for government utility companies, this time at PhD level.

As for Melany Tromp, from the perspective of her new function at the Central Bank she will execute her own proposal to improve financial education, while Gloria Vega has made a lot clearer what a Boutique Hotel is and what should be done in Aruba to explore this important market.

Finally, Kimberley de L’Isle of VanEps Kunneman Van Doorne, Camille Muyale and Indrah Figaroa of CATC, as well as Mrs. Lisette Malmberg of De Palm Corporation handed the special awards to all three graduates.