Our Story
Before the civil war in Liberia, the name BWI sounded like a celebrity name. The campus itself felt like paradise. Boys and girls were motivated and wanted to taste and experience the dynamic academic power of the institution. The aspirations and determination of students of diverse cultural backgrounds who came through the gates of BWI quickly formed a bond. A bond we held until the outbreak of the war in 1990.
It was right after the first mid-term exam in 1990 early that morning when we heard sounds of gunfire all around campus, students and teachers alike went helter-skelter, eventually fleeing campus not knowing the faith and whereabouts of our fellow students. We couldn’t have imagined and dreamt of the day we will see and talk to each other again.
In the early part of 2008 to 2015, Mr. Robert S. Karpeh took the initiative to connect with former students of BWI. He called all those he knew and inquired about the others. He kept us up to date and communicated frequently thereby keeping us together.
Unfortunately, Robert went MIA and the communication went dead. This raised serious concern amongst us as we were trying to figure out what was going on with Robert.
Between 2015 and 2017, the communication amongst us ceased, however, few of us stayed connected. We were trying to reestablish and reconnect with other former students of BWI as Robert had done. Fortunately, in August of 2017, Michael Scott and Timothy Asare met in Philadelphia. They pondered over the idea that there was a need to reestablish and connect with other former students of the institution.
The pair pulled out their phones and started comparing contact numbers. The following week Tim sent out a group text to all the contacts they had compiled. The response was tremendous. Group texting was somehow restricted to a certain number of people at a time. Communication was a little difficult. Subsequently, the idea of social media was suggested by Mr. Jonathan N. Harvey.
On April 16, 2018, our WhatsApp platform went live connecting former BWI students from the class of 1987 to Class of 1990 in Australia, Canada, England, Ivory Coast, Dubai, Nigeria, USA, and Liberia. Since then we have grown and have established ourselves into an organization (BWI Tiger Class of 87-90) with an interim leadership headed by Mr. Michael Scott as President and Miss Kou Gbamore as vice President supported by various committee chairs and members.
It has been fun on the social platform bringing back old memories, jokes, nicknames, priceless pictures and more. In conjunction with the “madness”, the Engagement Committee Chair created Confession Tuesday hosted by Sam Gbassagee, Hot Topics Thursday hosted by Sayzay and Fritz aka The Evil Twins Brothers and feel good Friday. As of today, Hot Topics Thursday has continued. As an organization, we are a fully registered non-profit organization with a 501(3)c status, a Wells Fargo Bank account and currently working towards the reopening of the radio station EL2BWI amongst other projects in the near future.
OUR PURPOSE
Our purpose is to reunite former students of Booker Washington Institute, engage our membership around the world to provide educational and financial assistance to Booker Washington Institute in Liberia.
OUR GOALS
- To provide charitable humanitarian assistance wherever possible to Booker Washington Institute in Liberia in the area of vocational education and human resource capacity building.
- To establish and maintain a working relationship with Booker Washington Institute in Liberia.
- To establish and maintain working relations with other institutions here in America and abroad that are seeking to provide humanitarian assistance for a viable course.
- To create awareness among BWI Tiger Class of 87-90 members and encourage the participation of the organization in issues that affect the general interest of the organization.
- To provide a forum of free exchange of ideas and create an enabling atmosphere for the cultivation of individual integrity and leadership skills.
- To interact with other associations, clubs and organizations with similar objectives.
