Brooklyn's Progress
February/March 2007

BY LESLIE ANN MURRAY, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
 
Johanne Brierre’s infectious laughter can be heard miles away, and her contagious mirth has a tendency to transform everyone’s dreary work week into the weekend.
 
Ms. Brierre, a travel consultant who is a graduate of the Hospitality and Tourism program at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), says her mission is to make space in the travel industry for students to travel the world on a shoestring budget and so the Friends of the Caribbean was born.
 
The initial idea for the Friends of the Caribbean (FOTC) project was developed as part of the CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise (IVE) Leadership Program and quickly grew into a promising endeavor.

With some financial assistance from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Brooklyn Goes Global program (BGG), last November Ms. Brierre and her classmate Levald Thomas initiated and organized a tour for students, travel professionals and young entrepreneurs from Brooklyn. They attended a five day eco-tourism symposium in Calabar, Nigeria. The trip also included a four-day tour to the Abuja carnival, a world class cultural event, which was sponsored by the Nigeria Tourism Development Corp. (NTDC).

“The BGG mission is to spread the story of Brooklyn-based manufacturers around the world,” said BGG Director Steve Kaplansky. “When the students from Kingsborough Community College reached out to us for support, their aggressive entrepreneurial spirit and excitement could not be ignored.”
 
“The trip to Nigeria taught me if you want something badly enough, there is always a way to get it done,” said Ms. Brierre.

“My previous perception of Africa has been shattered, I have come to see the similarity in people rather then the differences. I now see myself as a global citizen,” said Mr. Thomas who is a liberal arts major, president of student government, vice chair of the university student senate and co-founder of FOTC.

The eco-tourism conference was hosted by the African Travel Association – a tourism group created to promote travel and investment in Africa. With global warming fundamentally changing the cultural environments of emerging nations, eco-tourism is being seen as a medium to preserve the natural resources of countries worldwide. The eco-tourism movement seeks to create sustainable economic development through the tourist industry and conserve the biological and cultural elements of rising nations.
 
New York-based entrepreneurs who attended the eco-tourism conference spent time sightseeing and being educated about investment and career opportunities in tourism development around the world.
 
For more information about the CUNY IVE Leadership Program visit http://www.ive.cuny.edu/.

The trip was made possible with the support of Steven Kaplansky, Director, Brooklyn Goes Global, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Ogo Sow, Afrikmedia; Eddie Bergman, Africa Travel Association; Dr. Chica Onyeani, Celebrate Africa Foundation; Sumano Bello- Osagie, Nigerian Embassy; Robert L. Scott, Honors Academy Brooklyn College; Dr. Otis Hill; Dr. Alfonso J. Garcia Osuna; Dr.Marcia Babbitt; Prof. Eben Wood; William Marvin; Prof. Rosemary Bufano; and CUNY IVE Leadership mentors Prof. Christopher Winkler, and Dr. Stuart Schulman.