Caribbean

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of college educated, immigrant women from the Caribbean in their quest for professional advancement in educational leadership roles in the United States. There were six participants for this study who were selected based on convenience, purposeful, and criterion sampling. Each participant’s lived experience was explored through a triangulation of information provided from two in-depth face-to-face interviews, document analyses, and observation/field notes. The findings indicate that Caribbean immigrant women studied navigated hills and valleys that included acculturative stress. Furthermore, the participants are characterized with a militant motivation in their approach to achieving their goals; thus having an attitude of “by any means necessary” was essential to their success. To accomplish their goals and successfully navigate the hills and valleys, the participants shared the support of strong matriarchs in their family and with the added help of the village; they also engaged in adult learning practices in their efforts to excel. Additionally, a Caribbean identity was utilized as a source of resistance and high self-esteem bordering on ethnocentrism against prejudices to facilitate the journey to success.

The projects described in this dissertation concentrated on investigating Caribbean species for qualitative and quantitative chemical differences. Chapter one includes a brief update on the status of natural products as drugs, a discussion of the biodiversity of Caribbean marine organisms as well as a discussion about the chemistry of algae and sponges. In chapter two, an experiment to test for possible effects of warmer, more acidic water and how that will impact coral reef organisms was conducted. Six common Caribbean coral reef sponge species were grown in seawater for 24 days ranging from values experienced at summer-maxima (temperature = 28 ºC; pH = 8.1) to those predicted for the year 2100 (T = 31 ºC; pH = 7.8). For each species, attachment rates, growth, and survival were similar between temperature and pH levels. Only two metabolite concentrations varied significantly between treatments but were similar to baseline levels. In chapter three, a chemical survey of Florida Keys algae was performed using MeOH extraction and HP-20 SPE with varying Me2CO:H2O solutions. 1H NMR spectra were collected for each fraction and analyzed for interesting signals. A Laurencia sp. was extracted and found to contain the known compound isodactylyne (61) with the structure determined using spectroscopic analyses. In chapter four, a Laurencia obtusa specimen was investigated to determine the compound causing oxygenated signals between 4.50 – 4.80 ppm in the 1H NMR spectra observed in chapter three. A large scale extraction and fractionation was performed and the compound was determined to be 1-O-palmitoyl-2-O-myristoyl-3-O-(6-sulfo-α- D-quinovo-pyranosyl)-glycerol (63). In chapter five, the isolation and structural elucidation of a new compound, furocaespitanenone (64) and two known compounds (10R)- and (10S)-10-O-methylfurocaespitanelactol 65 and 66, from a Laurencia sp. collected off of the Florida Keys using MeOH extraction and HP-20 column chromatography is described. A potential biosynthesis of 64 from furocaepsitane (68) is proposed.