Pioneer student is guest for Selwyn’s jubilee launching

A pioneer student of Selwyn College national secondary school Dr. David Welchman Gegeo will be the guest speaker in a Golden Jubilee launching in Honiara on Sunday.

A church service and launching ceremony to celebrate Selwyn College’s 50th years will be held 2pm, Sunday 21st March at the Saint Barnabas Cathedral.

Dr. David will deliver the keynote address after the church service to officially launch Selwyn College Golden Jubilee.

As a pioneering local academic, he was one of the founding students of Selwyn College, Nagilagu.

He attended Selwyn College from 1970 to 1972.

He then went to do his university studies in the United States graduating with a B.A. in Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology; an M.S in Mass Communication and Public Relations; and a Ph.D. in Political Science and Political Philosophy.

After obtaining his PhD, David taught for ten years at California State University, in Northern California, USA, designing and teaching courses in Linguistics, Multicultural Education, Globalization and Ethic Studies.

He relocated to New Zealand in 2005 where he held the position of Senior Lecturer in the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand.

There he designed and taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Pacific Studies, Research Methodology, Globalization and Change in the Pacific, and Political Economy and Development.

In 2012, after the City of Christchurch was devastated by a deadly earthquake, David relocated to U.S.P. – Laucala Campus, in Suva, Fiji to take up the position of Director of the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies.

Finally, having his long-term wish to come home fulfilled, Dr. David relocated to Honiara in 2017.

He currently is the Director of the Office of Research and Postgraduate Studies and Acting Head of the School of Humanities in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at Solomon Islands National University.

As a Social Scientist, Dr. David’s research and teaching interests cover a wide range of subjects which include: Indigenous Epistemology, Indigenous Philosophy, Indigenous Hermeneutics, Research Methodologies, Ethics, Indigenous Governance, Ethical Development, Ethnic Integration in the Pacific, De-colonization, Gender Equality, and Third World Politics.

Among former students who will be attending the Golden Jubilee launching is Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Hon. Jeremiah Manele.

Chairman of the Golden Jubilee Committee Mr. Robert Iroga urged all former Selwyn College students to attend the church service and launching program.

“Come in your divisional colours of gold for Noabu, blue for Kirio, white for Masi and green for Tahula,” Iroga added.

Students who have attended Selwyn College are grouped into the four divisions above for the rest of their tenure at the school.

Selwyn College became a co-educational institution for both boys and girls in 1970 at Najilagu in the Guadalcanal Plains.

The devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Namu in 1986 saw the relocation of the school to its current site in West Guadalcanal.

Selwyn College is the premier secondary of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM).

Selwyn College Old Scholars Association (SOSA) in collaboration with the Golden Jubilee Committee is organizing the launching service.

A weeklong Golden Jubilee celebration is scheduled for the school break in September 2021.
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