Holy Cross College Alumni Reunion: Joe Issa Hosts Roommates of Class ’88

Like American luminaries such as Chris Matthews of  MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and Afro-American Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas who both became Crusaders after attending the prestigious College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, Jamaican Joe Issa keeps close ties with his roommates, most of whom visited him late last year in a mini-reunion.

Joey Issa

The traditional get together which takes place every five years occurs in the context of the university’s much-respected policy that “all freshmen must live on campus and must participate in the Montserrat program, which clusters together small groups of first-year students who take the same classes, live in the same themed residence areas and engage in group activities.”

The visit to Jamaica in September 2016 by Issa’s roommates from the Class of 1988 was reported by the University’s Alumni News, which featured a commemorative photo of them with Issa’s family, taken after attending Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Ocho Rios, where Rev. Michael Ford, S.J., celebrated Issa and Asha’s wedding in 2003.

All but two roommates, Sean Conroy and Jim Laski, made the trip. Pictured are (from left): Ed Haik, Ted Pidcock, JD Rehn P20, 18, 16, Jared Noering, Asha Issa, John Issa, Joe Issa, Alya Issa, Bob Hurley, Mark Quinn P20, Joe Bierwirth P18, and John Hanley.

It is not immediately known which areas of interest Issa’s classmates pursued since graduating in 1988, but he is said to have become a successful and national award-winning businessman, civic leader and philanthropist, who supports the education of underprivileged Jamaican children, through Cool Charities, a subsidiary of his Cool Group of over 50 companies which he started 21 years ago.

According to media reports, Issa also operates the Cool Charities/Holy Cross Scholarships Fund, which gives bright underprivileged students the opportunity to study for a degree at his alma mater, where he is said to have left an enviable record of academic achievements, scoring several firsts.

The 11^th Crusader in his family, Issa was the first international student and the first economics and accounting major to be honored with the role of valedictorian, selected by the Commencement Committee from among 30 of the highest ranked students who competed for the honor.

A member of several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Issa famously passed all four parts of the Certified Public Accountancy (CPA) examination in one sitting. He was selected by the Massachusetts Society of CPA’s Inc. as the most outstanding junior accounting student at Holy Cross, which both Wikipedia and newspaper reports confirm.

Considered a bright spark during his tourism career, Issa won several local and international awards. He won the 1994 Young Hotelier of the World award by the Paris-based International Hotel Association and three years later, he was given the Keys to the City of Lauderhill, Florida, by the mayor. He also copped the US-based Travel Agents Magazine’s 100 Rising Stars for four consecutive years.

Locally, Issa has served on the boards of several organizations including Guardian Life Limited, First Global Bank and Supreme Ventures. He was President of the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce and continues to serve as a member of the Past Presidents Advisory Committee. In 1996 Issa was made an Honorary Kiwanian for Life and seven years later, he was given the same honour by the Rotary Club.

Issa, who is also a Justice of the Peace (JP), was last year awarded the national honour of Member of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD), for outstanding contribution to business development and philanthropy, which started with “Educate the Children Fund”, a charity he founded while attending the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the UK, as part of his degree programme at College of the Holy Cross.

Considered to be a College of Excellence, ranked according to performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence, College of the Holy Cross is rated No. 32 on U.S. News & World Report’s list of best liberal arts colleges and received A+ on Niche’s list of 2017 Best Colleges in America.

With an enrollment of 2, 916 undergraduates paying a whopping $48,940 (2016-17), the College of the Holy Cross has a freshmen-retention rate of 95%, an indication of their level of satisfaction with the prestigious college, which Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked No. 15 on its list of the top 100 best values in liberal arts colleges and No. 27 on its list of the top 300 best values in all colleges in the country for 2017. It said Holy Cross has a four-year graduation rate of 89 percent and a student-faculty ratio of 9:1.

Holy Cross is set on 174 acres in suburban Worcester, which is the second largest city in New England and has more than a dozen other institutions making it a booming college town with a variety of dining, nightlife and outdoor options, according to its website.

Issa is believed to have been very involved on campus, which had and still has today, more than 100 clubs and organizations to choose from.

He got raved reviews as host of a radio programme on which he played reggae music and provided information on Jamaica’s culture and heritage, while running the Holy Cross Journal of Political Economy as founder and editor and presiding over Holy Cross International Students Union, as he did with the Afro-Caribbean Society at LSE. He also played reggae music at nightclubs in the town.

Said to have unique qualities as a private co-ed school, including having a Crusader as its mascot, Holy Cross is the only one among America’s top liberal arts colleges to embrace a Catholic, Jesuit identity.

In commenting on the mini-reunion which he and his family hosted, Issa says, “We had a great time, we always do when we get together, and they love Jamaica. We are quite close and we look forward to meeting every five years to update each other on what we are up to and to share our successes and challenges as we used to do when we were roommates,” Issa says, explaining, “We are Crusaders and Holy Cross brought us to be that way, just like all our predecessors since 1843.”

 

Joe Issa: Man of Many Accolades

“If Holy Cross College in the US should see Joe Issa today, it would say with much admiration, ‘I like what you’ve made of yourself … I’m proud of you’,” says a colleague close to him.

 

He adds, however, that despite Issa’s high achievements there, including the honor of being named Valedictorian of his class of ‘88, the reaction would be different if he had not excelled in his working life, such as becoming executive vice president of the SuperClubs chain of all-inclusive resorts, executive chairman of his Cool Group of companies and founder of several charities.

 

“One of Issa’s greatest attributes which has served him well is the ability to thrive under pressure. You may not know this but when he went to the prestigious Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, he was the 11^th member of the Issa family to do so and there was enormous pressure on him to do well or even excel,” says his colleague, who prefers to remain anonymous.

 

And excel he did, not only the family’s achievements but also Jamaica’s, by becoming the youngest Jamaican to pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination, which is one of the most difficult professional examinations in the United States.

 

As the highest ranking economics/accounting major Issa, whose pet name is Joey, received the Massachusetts Society of CPAs award and a place on the list of the top 40 Holy Cross students who were inducted into the school’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

 

Today, if the top 30 students in his class of ’88 who voted for him as valedictorian were to see him, they would be filled with pride for what he has become.

 

And what Joey subsequently achieved were not supposed to have been so easy, not with the proverbial large size of his father’s shoes in which he was expected to fit. But he made it look easy, leapfrogging the steps of the ladder with quick succession to become executive vice president of SuperClubs.

 

His brand-building expertise made the resorts a household name in Jamaica and sort-after by the international community, bringing the SuperClubs resorts several awards while copping many of his own, including the prestigious Young Hotelier of the World 1994; he was just 29 years old.

 

With award after award for his business leadership and philanthropy, Joey became one of the most highly respected and credible businessman in the country and has been placed alongside Sir Richard Branson for his knack for brand building, although his over-50 companies pales in comparison with Virgin’s 400, but Joey is younger with more time to catch up.

 

Joey is also well known in Jamaica for leading civic organizations, such as the Chambers of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club. In the process he has contributed significantly to the development of the business sector particularly in Ocho Rios, while employing hundreds of workers and changing the fortunes of many disadvantaged school children, by donating books and computers and providing scholarships to attend university abroad.

 

He has been an ardent advocate for many worthy causes, from assisting disadvantaged children and helping to clean up the town of Ocho Rios, to fairness to hotel workers, craft vendors, small hotels and cruise ship ports, and accountability in governance.

 

Thus, through his many appearances in the media advocating for causes close to his heart and hosting the rich and famous, Joey grew more and more popular to the point that he was once voted one of Jamaica’s 10 most recognizable faces.

 

His work in academia, business and philanthropy earned his many awards, which some persons have tried to quantify without success, leaving them to speculate jokingly, that if all his accolades could be measured in kilometers they would span the island.

 

Another standing joke about the multi-award winner is that side-by-side his many plaques could line up the entire length of Main Street in Ocho Rios, where his Cool Group of Companies is headquartered, the only large Jamaican corporation to do so.