NEW YORK, January 5: Immigration rights advocate Irwine Clare, Sr., is among a number of past students of community colleges in Jamaica, who will be honoured at the annual conference of the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ), slated for January 8 at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios.

Mr. Clare, who is a graduate of the Brown's Town Community College, will be presented with the college's 2007 Outstanding Alumnus Award.
Each year, the CCCJ recognizes an outstanding alumnus from each of its member institutions at its annual conference.

Mr. Clare told JIS News that he is "quite humbled by this award and in accepting it, I must say thanks to those who made the decision and more importantly, to recognize two persons, who were very critical in accepting me at the college - High Commissioner Burchell Whiteman (first principal) and Dorothy McKendrick - who were my surrogate parents. I will be forever grateful and pledge to continue to support the endeavours of the community college system in Jamaica," he said.

Currently residing in New York with his wife and two children, Mr. Clare is the co-founder and managing director of the Queens-based Caribbean Immigrant Services (CIS), an organization dedicated to the empowerment of Caribbean nationals in New York, through informed presentations on immigration and socio-political issues.

His consistent advocacy for and on behalf of the New York Caribbean community, has made him a much sought after speaker and a frequent guest on radio and television programmes. Since 1995, he has assisted thousands of residents to become United States citizens.

Mr. Clare, who also attended York Castle High School, may be best known for his work through Team Jamaica Bickle (TJB), which he founded more than a decade ago, to better provide for the hundreds of student athletes from Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean region, attending the annual Penn Relays in the United States.