CONVENTIONS The EHS-EES Convention is held on a yearly basis at different locations throughout the United States and Canada. EXECUTIVE MEETINGS To carry out its many different functions, the Executive Board is empowered to make decisions and right actions for the good of the organization. GENERAL MEETINGS These meetings are open to any and all organizations members who care to attend.

Remarks from the National President, 2013 Convention

Fellow Alumni, former students, missionaries, teachers, friends and well-wishers: With sincere and best wishes, the Board and executive committee of the EES/EHS Alumni Association USA & Liberia greet and welcome you to our 15th Annual Convention in this great city of Atlanta, GA.... Click here for President Samuel A. Abdullai's complete remarks (Adobe .PDF file).

Report on the Alumni-Supported Projects

Click here to read the Minutes of the 15^th EES/EHS Convention in Atlanta, Georgia (Adobe .PDF file).

Click here for Feweh Sherman's report on the projects undertaken in 2012 and 2013 (Adobe .PDF file).

Guest Speaker Sando Kiawu-Jones, Class of 1970: "We Have the Power to Make a Difference"

Guest Speaker Sando Kiawu-Jones, Class of 1970

My Fellow Alumni and Former Students
Officers and members of the Georgia Chapter
Our Guests
Ladies and Gentleman

To my fellow Alumni and Former Students, thank you for this singular honor in asking me to serve as the guest speaker for the 15th Convention of the Episcopal Elementary School/Episcopal High School (St. Johns and House of Bethany) Alumni Association.

I wish to begin by asking everyone to please stand and observe a moment of silence for those members who have passed into the nearer presence of God since our last convention. Please continue to stand and give a huge applause to the missionaries, both foreign and local, who made a difference in our lives.

I will speak to you this evening on the topic, "We Have the Power to Make a Difference."

When the Episcopal Church began its work in Liberia in 1836, it sent out missionaries to an unknown place, filled with uncertainty and risks. They went with faith. When the Church established its mission in Grand Cape Mount County in 1878, those whom they sent also went with faith.  Their faith was grounded in the knowledge that they had the power to make a difference.

We the members of the Episcopal Elementary School/Episcopal High School (St. Johns and House of Bethany) Alumni Association are the missionaries of today and we must be grounded in the faith that we have the power to make a difference.

In 1928, the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States described Africa as the "continent of the future."  Africa remains the continent of the future.  To attain this future, we must exercise the power to make a difference.

By making a difference at EES/EHS, we will start a ripple effect that will impact multiple generations. In exercising our power to make a difference, we can provide hope for the children who attend our school, the children of Cape Mount, and Liberia.

We can make a difference by providing opportunities for the current students of EES/EHS so they may have a future similar to what many of us have been blessed with since we left the school. We have the power to make that difference – that pivotal difference!

Look among us, we are doctors, teachers, lawyers, social workers, scientists, nurses , bankers, geologists, accountants, and engineers – our graduates span the continuum of professionalism. We are the trendsetters for future generations of our school and future generations of Liberians.

Our web site states the following: "Over the years, St. John's has transformed boys into men, while the House of Bethany transformed girls into women.  In the process, students acquired several of life's most desirable attributes, such as hard work, honesty, self-discipline, mutual respect, perseverance, integrity, and a sense of community; for them,  EHS was their 'rite of passage'  to success.

We must change our lives from making a living to making a difference. Let us ask ourselves "What is the one thing that each of us could do that would make a positive difference in the life of a child at EES and EHS," and then commit to doing it. We should begin down this path by changing our attitude and believing in ourselves because we do have the power to make a difference.

We have a great opportunity to rebuild our alma mater.   Let us join together and make use of this unique opportunity.  Only we can choose whether to contribute to our school or not to.   Remember that it is sometimes the little things that often have the greatest impact. Reach out and provide a helping hand.  There are many things that each of us can do: Perhaps you could contribute school supplies, or medications, or provide scholarships.  

We have a duty to make a difference in the lives of the current students so that they too may go through those same sacred 'rites of passage' of our experiences. The theme for this year's Convention is "Giving Back to Our Alma Mater."  My fellow alumni and former students, we have a duty to give back to our alma mater; so as an association, we may exercise the power to make a difference. I recall your attention to one of our objectives laid out in the Constitution: "To raise funds through donations, dues, solicitation and other legal means to restore and support these institutions."

By meeting this objective, we help to give the current students the same hope, beliefs, values and aspirations we had when we were students. We have the power to make a difference. We should commit to paying our dues even when we are unable to attend reunions. We should make a difference by contributing what we can afford above our dues. When we contribute to the alumni association, we exercise our power to make a difference.

My fellow graduates and former students, I offer for your consideration the following recommendations:

1. We should institute a process through which we would publicly recognize deserving members at conventions by giving meritorious awards.
2. The National President should appoint an alumnus/alumnae to head the "Reconstruction Fund" of the Association. One of the central duties of this office would be to reach out to members to contribute to the Fund and make an annual report to the convention.
3. Each organized local chapter should engage in fund raising activities in their respective locales and pay an annual assessment fee or quota to the national association for support of our various projects for the school. This would be separate from annual dues paid by members. The amount of the assessment fee would be decided by the convention.

My fellow alumni and former students, let me take this opportunity to personally extend congratulations to Mr. Samuel Abdullai, our re-elected National President, for his exemplary leadership during his term of office. Well done Samuel!   May God continue to bless and strengthen you as you utilize your power to make a difference for your school.

As we conclude our 15th Convention, we must remain focused on how we can make a difference to the students of EES/EHS. Like the missionaries of old who came into our world with faith and hope, believing in their power to make a difference, and our teachers over the years, we have the same duty and obligation.

Like Fr. E. Bolling Robertson, Mrs. Marilyn Robertson, Principal Mamusu Fahnbulleh, Miss Catherine C. Barnaby, Mr. James Freeman, Mr. A. Tamu Diggs, Fr. Jacob Wilson, Miss Tenbrooke, Mr. George Washington, Miss Irene Lawrence, Teacher Edna, Sis Massa, Mr. S. P. Freeman, Mr. John Varney Singler, Ma May Jalieba, Teacher Skinner, Sis Sarah Hoff, the McLaughlins, and the Bizzells, all of whom made a difference in our lives.   Let us therefore use our power to make a difference in the lives of the students of our beloved Episcopal Elementary School/Episcopal High School.

Yes – we do have the power to make a difference!  I am challenging you today to go out and make that difference for our alma mater.

Thank you and may God bless all of you.

Biography

Sando Jerusha Kiawu-Jones was born in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County. She began her formal education at the Ciatta Freeman Kindergarten School in Robertsport. Ciatta Freeman was the only kindergarten for young children at the time in Robertsport. Upon completion, she enrolled in the Primary Division of the Episcopal Elementary School, in Pre-Primer. After completing the elementary school, she matriculated to the Episcopal High School until she graduated in December, 1970.

Sando is a graduate of the University of Liberia, where she acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. After graduating college, Sando worked for the Ministry of Education at the Voinjama Multilateral High School in Voinjama, Lofa County, as a History Instructor. She relocated there with her husband, who was employed with a World Bank project, shortly after they were married.

After residing in Voinjama for about two years, Sando and her husband moved back to Monrovia. She was employed with the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation in the capacities of Director of the Medical Department and Director of the Claims Department. After 11 years with the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation, Sando left Liberia in May, 1990, to join her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before departing Liberia, in 1990, Sando was awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, to complete one-year of graduate studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana as a 1990/91 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow. She enrolled at Tulane in August, 1990, and completed the fellowship in July, 1991, with a Post-graduate Certificate in Health Services Management.

In January, 1999, Sando enrolled at Howard University, Washington DC, to further her education. She acquired a Master of Social Work degree, MSW, in December, 2000. Her area of specialization is Child, women, and Families.

Additionally, Sando has professional certificate from the Centers for Disease Control, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is an Honorary Citizen of the city of New Orleans.

Sando has been employed with the state of Maryland for 18 years, serving with Baltimore City Department of Social Services in the Child Welfare Division, Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services, as a recruiter and trainer of perspective foster parents for the state of Maryland, and Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, in the Child, Adult, and Family Services Division. She is currently an Adult Protective Services Investigator, for Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, Adult Protective Services. Sando investigates neglect, abuse, and exploitation of older adults in Prince George’s County. Report of the abuse is submitted to the States Attorney of Prince George’s County and Prince George’s County Police Vulnerable Adults Division for immediate action.

Sando is married to Counselor Mohamedu Jones; they have one child, Azizi Jones.

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Photos and Video from the 2013 Convention