UVI-CELL Center Reopens on St. John

Continuing efforts toward disaster recovery brought a celebration to the St. John Marketplace Tuesday. Officials from the University of the Virgin Islands joined community members at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the island’s own UVI-CELL Center.

Seven-and-a-half years has passed since Hurricane Irma damaged the building where the university last offered extension services on St. John. But among those making remarks at Tuesday’s opening was a UVI educator who led classes at the Marketplace years before that.

“One thing St. John has taught me — your dreams here can get interrupted but they don’t die,” said Social Sciences Department Chair Elizabeth Jaeger. During the eight years she had lived on island, Jaeger said she taught an extension class in the then-rented space on the shopping center’s third floor.

The space now in operation on the second floor hosts an administrative office and a separate classroom. Partner agencies waiting to meet prospective students include the UVI-Small Business Development Center, the V.I. Apex Accelerator Program, and the Department of Education Adult Education and Family Literacy program.