Shinelle Smith, an educator and entrepreneur, was recently named a recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship, a fully-funded scholarship programme which "enables outstanding emerging leaders from all over the world to pursue one-year master's degrees in the UK". Shinelle was part of the first graduating cohort of UTT's Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Innovation, Manufacturing Management and Entrepreneurship (IMME) programme, which she completed in 2017. After completing her programme of study at UTT, Shinelle established The Travel Taxi Ltd in 2018, a company focused on "Redefining the Caribbean Travel Experience", using an organic and sustainable approach to tourism.

It is her work and interest in this area, in addition to her position as a lecturer in Tourism at the Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (THTI), that led to her July 2021 appointment as a member of a multi-sectoral Tobago New Normal Task Force (TNNTF) to develop strategic plans for a safe and sustainable tourism sector, post-COVID-19, for Tobago. Part of the responsibility of this task force, which falls under the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), is to ensure the resilience of the tourism sector on the island, which is a key source of revenue for the country. As her project supervisor, I can proudly say that Shinelle completed her M.Sc. dissertation on sustainable tourism, with specific reference to Tobago! To add to her list of accomplishments, as a proud alumna of the Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship (MME) Unit, Shinelle now also sits on the MME Advisory Committee with other members of industry to help ensure the relevance of our programmes to not just industry, but the nation as a whole. She is also a member of The Green Key National Jury of Trinidad & Tobago. Shinelle is currently in the UK pursuing her postgraduate studies in Digital Teaching and learning at the University of Nottingham. We wish her well in her current and future endeavours!