Students at Campus A of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School were given some personal and timely advice by Anguillian Methodist Minister, Rev Erica Carty, as they began the new school year on Monday, September 1.
“What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think about you,” Rev Carty, known for her influential and candid manner of speaking, told the students during a special assembly session.
She hoped that in carrying out their responsibilities that the teachers would find it possible to bring the best out of the students in the classrooms. “This new school year, you are going to wake up every morning and watch yourself in the mirror,” she remarked to the students. ‘”Then you are going to say ‘I am a child of God and even if they call me rude and stubborn, I am going to show them that this new school year I can improve in my behaviour and excel in my school work.’
“You must start to think good things about yourself,” she continued in her motivational and devotional talk. “You are going to say ‘I am beautiful; ‘I am intelligent; I am well-behaved; I am disciplined. I am a child of God. I am loved by God, and beautifully and wonderfully made by Him.”‘
Rev Carty further advised the students to avoid teasing each other unnecessarily and degradingly. For those not regarded as intelligent as others, her advice to them was: “That doesn’t mean that you can’t do well too. It means that you just have to put in the extra effort.”
The Minister pointed to herself as a role model, saying she was once a student at the school although there was now a whole different system of learning. “I was part of this Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, as a student, for five years. I am proud of that and I hope you are too; and Mrs Lake, your Principal, was one of my favourite teachers,” Rev Carty stated.
“She helped shape my life and helped bring me to where I am today – to be a Minister to represent the whole of the Caribbean. I worked in Barbados. I worked in Trinidad and I can tell you I am thankful for this system that helped me to shape my education. I am a graduate of the University of the West Indies. I have my degree in Theology. I did very well and I graduated with good grades. You better do us proud in this system because it has shaped and moulded other people who have gone on to success as well, so I am looking for great things from you too.”
Following Rev Carty’s presentation, the Principal, Mrs Ingrid Lake, led the students in reciting the various clauses in the list of virtues adopted by the school. She welcomed the new students from Campus B and hoped that all of the student body would continue to make good progress at the Comprehensive School.
