Ms. Lena Luke a Dominican born from the village of St. Joseph has attained a master’s degree with distinction in the field of Creole Studies from the Université des Antilles. As a past student of the Isaiah Thomas Secondary found her interest in generalized foreign language developed during her years at high school. She persisted and completed her associates degree in French at the Dominica State College and became a qualified, trained teacher at the Dominica Teachers College. Ms. Luke taught French at the Pierre Charles Secondary where she realized her passion was not only in French language but also in the Creole Language. She recalled being fascinated by the effortless way her students conversed in Creole and although she understood French, some intonations and descriptions of words were different, therefore making a conscious effort to go more in-depth in the creole language to engage in conversation with her students. She later moved to Martinique to pursue a bachelors degree in French and Linguistics and a masters in Language and Civilization.
The more she became engrossed in foreign languages the more her passion for Creole developed. As a form of personal development, she proceeded to pursue a Master’s degree in Creole Studies. Ms. Luke recalled being nervous by her professors especially during her dissertation as she was tasked to present her thesis in the presence of four interviewers as opposed to the other students having two. After inquiring why her number of interviewers were doubled, she was informed that there was a keen interest in Dominican Creole and that she was the only student from the English-speaking Caribbean to completed her thesis in Creole and not a mixture of languages. After her successful completion of her dissertation, her thesis was selected to be sent to a university in Haiti to be used in their linguistic department in their reference catalogue. Ms. Luke subsequently created her own short stories with her famous character called “Tek Tek” and his illustrious activities which contribute to her quest in creating more Creole literature.
Ms. Luke intends to continue her passion by building on her knowledge of the Creole Language, she further intends to assists willing persons to develop the language. She sees herself as an advocate for the Creole language as she believes that incorporating the language in the schools will keep the language alive. Even before her achievement Ms. Luke’s proposal of an introductory to creole course was accepted at the Dominica State College, she describes this as a bold step in the right direction.
