Mr. Denniston Bonadie is Co-Founder and Vice-President for Program Development of the Global Literacy Project, Inc. He received his high school education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and university education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 1992, he graduated from Rutgers College with B.A. degrees in Africana studies and history, and minors in mathematics and physics. He earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning in 2001 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in urban planning and public policy from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. His research is on the intersection of property theory, citizenship, identity, land markets, state policies, and alternative strategies for community development.
His early professional experience was as Programs Coordinator and then Assistant Director (Acting) of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center at Rutgers. He then joined the internationally known Scotiabank, working in the Caribbean during the 1990s. During his time with Scotiabank, Mr. Bonadie became interested in issues surrounding the intersection of education, property and wealth-building strategies for disenfranchised communities. This led him to return to academia in the late 1990s to pursue research in these areas. He has been awarded a Graduate Fellowship at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis for 2005-06. The year’s focus will be “Planetary Perspectives: Approaching World History in an Era of Globalization.”
Returning to Rutgers University, he joined the Rutgers College Department of Student Services as its Academic Community Programs Coordinator for the First Year Residential Learning Program at Rutgers College, a post in which he was responsible for providing guidance to peer mentors and creating support programs in first year residence halls. His duties included the hiring, training, and evaluation of staff, as well as coordinating with faculty in the creation of new programs. As his academic research progressed he then moved to the Department of Africana Studies where he currently teachers several courses including Pan-African Movements, Black Civilizations, African Presence in American Culture and the department’s Intro to Methodology. He is currently completing an introductory text on the Methodology of Africana Studies.
In 1999 he and Dr. Olubayi Olubayi conceptualized the Global Literacy Project for the purpose of fostering community-based literacy initiatives throughout the world. Over the past five years the project has transferred millions of dollars worth of books and literacy support materials (including computers) to several dozen locations in the poorest parts of Africa, the Caribbean and South India. They have enabled some 30 East African high school students to obtain entrance to university on full scholarship and they have seen initiatives for the construction of several new regional community libraries in East, West and South Africa. The GLP has been recognized by the State of New Jersey and Dr. Yusuf A. Nzibo, the Kenyan Ambassador to the United States.
References/Citations
To learn more about the Global Literacy Project, please visit: www.glpinc.org To learn more about the Africana Studies Department, please visit: africanastudies.rutgers.edu