Speaker Tara Carter (front row, centre) with the group of students in London.
ANGUILLA--The Anguilla House of Assembly successfully hosted "Mentor & Mingle London 2025", a youth leadership forum focused on empowering Anguillian youth through mentorship and networking opportunities. The event was held at the Wellington Hotel in London, on Saturday, May 17, and brought together 23 Anguillian students from across the United Kingdom, including participants who travelled from as far off as Wales.
Speaker of the Anguilla House of Assembly, Tara Carter, led the initiative under the theme "Men-torship as a Catalyst for Youth Leadership: Empowering Tomorrow". The forum aimed to strengthen connections between young Anguillians studying in the UK and established professionals, while fos-tering leadership skills essential for sustainable development.
The day-long programme featured key sessions focused on essential aspects of youth development. Youth in Governance was presented by Stephen Twigg, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Par-liamentary Association. This session examined the critical role of young people in governance and demonstrated how positive youth engagement translates into sustainable national development. An-other session was Mentorship for Success and was led by Dr. Nadine Nelson, biomedical scientist and Nisha Dupuis, journalism and communications professional, who is Miss Anguilla 2024-2025. This ses-sion explored the challenges faced by students studying abroad and provided practical guidance for navigating these experiences.
Following the sessions, the group was able to engage socially on a Thames River Cruise and visited other London sights as a means of building camaraderie and shared experiences. It is hoped that from this engagement students will be inspired to, among other things, establish a network of Anguillian students in the United Kingdom for peer support and mentorship.
This initiative follows on Speaker Carter's recent Mentor and Mingle engagement with Youth Par-liamentarians in Anguilla. She was in the UK to attend the Commons and Overseas Territories Speak-ers' Conference (COTSC) 2025.
