On Saturday, Microsoft executive and Virgin Islands native Rashida A. Hodge introduced Adaina Smith as the first recipient of the new Rashida A. Hodge Scholarship, a scholarship to attend North Carolina State University funded through Hodge’s $1 million donation to the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands and valued at more than $60,000 per year.

Speaking at the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands office, Hodge reflected on her journey from St. Thomas public schools to a career in technology.

A graduate of Charlotte Amalie High School, Hodge earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University before building a career that included 20 years at IBM and leadership roles at Microsoft.

“What got me there was people believing in me, people seeing the potential in me before I saw it in myself,” Hodge said.

Hodge said scholarships and mentors helped create opportunities that her family could not afford on their own.

“My parents couldn’t afford to send me away to school to go to North Carolina State,” she said. “I received scholarships, and people sowed into my life.”

She said the scholarship is intended to provide not only financial support but also mentorship for future recipients.

“You can be as smart as you want to be, you can go to the best school, but access and opportunity are sometimes a blocker,” Hodge said. “People were kind and gracious enough through mentorship and sponsorship to open doors for me, and I want to be able to do the same for her.”

Smith said the award will allow her to pursue her education without the burden of student debt. “I just want to say a big thank you to the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, as well as Rashida Hodge,” she said. “I hope that this will serve as an inspiration to other young students like me to apply for scholarships like this.”

She encouraged other students to take advantage of similar opportunities. “Apply. Never give up on yourself,” she said.

“This scholarship, the Rashida A. Hodge Scholarship, is so exciting for us because it’s the biggest award that we have,” Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands President Dee Baecher-Brown said. “We see investing in young Virgin Islanders as one of the most positive ways to build the future of the Virgin Islands.”

Hodge said the scholarship honors the example set by her grandmother, Iolina Turnbull-Hodge, whose emphasis on education helped shape generations of the family.

Rashida’s uncle, architect Brian Turnbull, said he was able to attend college only because of his mother’s sacrifices and unwavering encouragement.

“I was able to go to college because of savings from my mother,” Turnbull said. “She did everything in her power to make sure that I could go to college.”

Turnbull described his mother as a woman with “a simple lifestyle” and uncompromising principles, particularly when it came to family and education.

“She stood behind her children and supported them. There would be nothing that she wouldn’t give to her children,” he said.

Those values were later passed on to Hodge by her mother, Karen E. Hodge, who said education was always a priority in their household.

“Education is a powerful tool, and it’s a tool that everyone should use,” Karen Hodge said. “Never skip it out, never slack on it … Learning is the most powerful tool that we have.”

Hodge’s father, Sen. Dwayne DeGraff, said the award provides more than financial support, noting that Smith will also gain a mentor in his daughter.

“She has a great role model in my daughter, Rashida, who’s going to guide her through,” he said. “And I know Rashida, she’s going to make sure she goes from the beginning to the end. She ain’t gonna let that young lady fail. That’s who Rashida is.”

With the first scholarship awarded and more students expected to follow, the Rashida A. Hodge Scholarship endowment now links a St. Thomas family’s long emphasis on education with a new generation of Virgin Islands graduates.

A Virgin Islands attorney has objected to a proposed settlement of all sexual assault and trafficking suits against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. The agreement would also block any future suits related to Epstein’s abuse of women and girls while setting aside tens of millions for Epstein’s friends and heirs.

A federal judge in New York preliminarily approved the proposed settlement, brought by Florida-based attorneys for the lead plaintiff in a class-action suit against Epstein’s estate, in February, setting a timeline for details to be hammered out through the summer.

The settlement would cover all sex-crime claims against Epstein between Jan. 1, 1995, and Aug. 10, 2019, when Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell at 66. It would release Epstein’s estate — estimated to have dwindled to around $120 million — as well as its managers, longtime attorney and accountant for the sex offender Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, from the current litigation and any future legal action related to Epstein’s crimes, many of which allegedly took place in the territory.

St. Croix attorney Russell Pate, who has represented Virgin Islanders in suits against tobacco, oil, and other industries, wrote to the court expressing his objection. The settlement would reserve $80 million to be distributed as Epstein laid out in his will — potentially rewarding people who aided and abetted the financier’s notorious sex crimes, Pate said.

Pate wrote to the court Friday, saying he had just learned of the settlement plan. If it took a docket-watching attorney months to hear of the plan, what hope would a nonlawyer have, he asked.

He planned to be at the Sept. 16 hearing.

“There could be dozens of unknown victims, who never receive actual notice of this class-action settlement, but would have their claims extinguished even though these victims may have timely claims pursuant to statute-of-limitations tolling available in the U.S. Virgin Islands or their home court jurisdictions. This is a Due Process problem,” he wrote to the court Friday.

The agreement should be altered, Pate said, to allow any potential victim to join the class action suit and not shield the estate from future suits. Further, the deal made in New York would undermine legal proceedings underway in the Virgin Islands, where the estate is situated.

“The Epstein Estate, however, is a Virgin Islands entity administered under Virgin Islands law, and the situs of the Estate – including its approximately $120 million in remaining assets – is in a U.S. Virgin Islands’ probate proceeding. The proposed Judgment from this Court would effectively adjudicate the rights of present and future tort claimants against the Epstein Estate, including those who might sue in the Virgin Islands,” Pate wrote.

A key difference is how the wealth of a deceased person is treated in New York — where named Epstein plaintiff could see $875,000 — versus the Virgin Islands, where Pate estimated those same women could be estimated to millions.

“New York follows an archaic legal principle that when a defendant dies, like Jeffrey Epstein, victims can no longer seek punitive damages, despite Epstein’s outrageous, egregious, and reprehensible intentional conduct. The Virgin Islands, like Pennsylvania, Ohio and a minority of other States, follows a more enlightened approach: That the death of a defendant changes nothing in the case; not the claims or the damages. Essentially, Jeffery Epstein’s Estate inherits the same liability and damages as every claim ‘survives’ to his Estate, including punitive damages,” Pate wrote.

“Further, it makes little sense to bar unknown victims who may live anywhere in the world from coming forward in the future. She may decide to come to the U.S. Virgin Islands to sue Epstein’s Estate in its home forum,” Pate wrote to the court. “New York should not rob that victim of pursuing punitive damages against Epstein’s Estate under U.S. Virgin Islands law; the law that Jeffrey Epstein chose to live under, and that his Estate exists under.”

The court should set aside the $80 for future claimants rather than pay out Epstein’s heir and enablers, Pate argued.

“In the plainest English possible: This settlement provides absolute immunity to the Epstein Estate from any future victim’s lawsuit, which, logically will protect tens of millions of dollars in Epstein’s Estate. The Epstein Estate will then distribute this excess money to Indyke and Kahn as Epstein’s heirs. This result is perverse,” he wrote. “Further, this class-action settlement robs victims who may come forward of going to the best venue possible for justice, the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The Southern District of New York court planned a teleconference for Tuesday afternoon, but under the proposed agreement, the time for other victims to come forward has already passed.

In order to receive funds from the settlement, women who were part of the class action suit must have filled out a questionnaire and other forms by May 12.

Check out our weekly weather forecast with Jesse Daley, covering Sunday, May 31, through Saturday, June 6.

Please stay safe and follow the Source for more weather updates!

The streets of downtown Christiansted were filled with music, culture, and community spirit Friday night as May Jump Up returned to downtown Christiansted, drawing residents and visitors alike for one of the island’s signature events.

With warm temperatures and an even hotter atmosphere, the popular street festival served as an unofficial kickoff to the summer season. Thousands lined the historic streets to enjoy live entertainment, local food vendors, arts and crafts, Moko Jumbies, and the vibrant energy.

Families, friends, and tourists strolled through Christiansted’s waterfront district, taking in performances from local musicians and entertainers while supporting small businesses and vendors. The event showcased the rich culture and hospitality of St. Croix, offering something for attendees of all ages.

The festive atmosphere highlighted the importance of community events that bring people together while supporting the local economy.

As music echoed through the streets and dancers moved to the rhythm of the night, May Jump Up once again proved why it remains one of St. Croix’s most anticipated annual traditions.

The heat may have been noticeable, but it did little to slow the crowds as Christiansted came alive for a memorable night of culture, entertainment, and food.

The Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts opened its 2026 Dialogues on Freedom Series and Pride Month observance Thursday evening with an opening reception for “Conversations on Pride,” an exhibition featuring work by artists from the Virgin Islands LGBTQIA community.

Co-curated by Sonia Nahar Deane of Cane Roots Art Gallery and CMCArts, the exhibition was developed in collaboration with the STX Pride organization. According to promotional materials, the partnership is rooted in “celebrating the right for our LGBTQIA family and friends to be themselves and to live their lives as they choose.”

Organizers said the exhibition reflects a shared commitment to freedom of expression and recognition of the LGBTQIA community in the Virgin Islands.

Several artists whose work is featured in the exhibition attended the reception, which included complimentary hors d’oeuvres from Barb’s Bites, a cash bar and music provided by a DJ in the courtyard. Artists represented in the exhibition include Johánna Bermudez-Ruiz, Victoria Rivera, Augustin Holder, Gene Rotter and Saroo Gena.

One of the first works visitors encounter upon entering the second-floor gallery is “Worthy,” an acrylic painting on a found shutter by Rivera. The piece features a silhouetted figure with a raised hand extending into bands of the Pride rainbow.

Rivera described the work as “a contemporary look at age-old societal constructs. The androgynous figure is superimposed on a discarded, traditional wooden shutter found on St Croix. It represents growing up and out of that which no longer serves our well-being and ability to thrive and flourish. It is a signpost declaring we are worthy as we are; we have always deserved to be seen and cherished.”

For the exhibition, Rivera said she chose “to create pieces representing struggle, defeat, lessons and growth.”

Nearby is “Soul Love: A Celestial Meeting (Amour Del Alma: Un Encuentro Celestial),” a 52-by-52-inch acrylic-on-canvas work by filmmaker, writer and painter Johánna Bermudez-Ruiz.

According to the artist’s description, the painting depicts two women who “live fully independent physical lives, yet they cross time, space and past lives to meet across the celestial sky.”

The work combines influences that the artist describes as “the bold geometric facial structures of Picasso, the surreal metaphysical dreamscapes of Dali and the symbolic dualities of Frida Kahlo.”

The composition also incorporates what Bermudez-Ruiz describes as “sacred botanical, cultural and cosmic iconography,” including lavender and orchids, which she notes have historically been used by members of the LGBTQIA community as symbols of resistance, identity and bodily autonomy.

Rivera also contributed two self-portraits to the exhibition. “Self Portrait 2025,” she said, “portrays my struggle with identity as a young queer adoptee of color in a rural town.”

She described “Self Portrait 2026” as “a visualized inner dialogue. It is a lifelike portrait and offers a resting place for abandonment, shame and fear … leaving sacred space for love, vulnerability, and self-acceptance.”

The exhibition serves as the opening event for both CMCArts’ 2026 Dialogues on Freedom Series and St. Croix Pride Month activities.

“We are honored to support everyone in their creative endeavors,” said Lisa Mordhorst, executive director of CMCArts. “Our work is rooted in freedom of expression, empowering the voices of our entire community.”

Mordhorst said the exhibition reflects that commitment.

“Freedom is a part of the human condition,” she said. “We all live. We all breathe. We all wake up in the morning and we all want to be free.”