On Monday, March 29th, several students of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School participated in a professional development seminar held at the Anguilla Football Association Conference Room. The 31 students comprise one of the more prominent clubs at the school — the “We Love Hospitality” Club.
The “We Love Hospitality” Club was initiated in 2013 by Graduate Teacher in Hospitality and Tourism, Mrs. Kendisha Hall-Prentice. She spoke to The Anguillan newspaper about the Club just before the seminar started: “The Club consists of students from Third to Sixth Form of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School,” she said. “The official name of the Club is ‘We Love Hospitality 264’. Our motto is ‘Live, Learn, Explore; We Love Hospitality 264’.”
“Our mission,” Mrs. Hall-Prentice stressed, “is to afford students endless educational opportunities for advancement in the world of hospitality. To this end, we travel a lot but, now of course, due to COVID-19 our travelling has been somewhat restricted. We have toured US destinations to learn about various types of tourism. We have visited natural and manmade attractions in such places as New York and Orlando for adventure tourism, and in Miami we were exposed to the rudiments of cruise tourism.
“We have also visited St Kitts/Nevis to assess their tourism product and to determine how theirs compares with ours. Therefore, we have examined their infrastructure, their food, hotels, amenities, and their forms of accessibility which outline how their transportation systems work with regard to airlift, ferry services and ground transportation etc.”
She mentioned that the Club’s main sponsor is the Social Security Board. “Following our trip to St. Kitts/Nevis,” she said, “the club produced a comprehensive report on its findings, which was presented to the Social Security Board who was thrilled that the students had learnt so much on their excursion.”
Speaking about the seminar at hand, she said: “Today’s seminar is under the theme ‘Me, the Hospitality Professional’. We hold these developmental seminars every year, close to the end of March, as a part of our Hospitality Week activities.”
Moderator of Monday’s all-day seminar was club-member Santeè Maynard. The first facilitator was Senior Social Worker in the Department of Social Development, Mrs. Angelina Carty, who spoke on the subject “Who am I”. In her exposition, she focused on particular key values that every young individual should embrace and practice. Values such as confidentiality, time management, listening to others, participation, the acceptance of one’s personal identity, self-control, loyalty, honesty, accountability and selflessness were discussed and expounded on.
Other facilitators included: Mr. Jameel Rochester, whose topic was “Anguilla Post COVID-19; Ms. Marva Smith, who presented on “A Professional Image”; Chef Ernesto Guzman, whose topic was “My Culinary Experience; Ms. Tahira Banks, who spoke on “Professionalism on Social Media and Entreprenuership”; Leah Hughes, who dealt with “Financial Management”; Hyacinth Bradley and Rodwell Grant, who addressed “Mental Health”; and Simonia Williams and Oshari Tomlinson, who both spoke on the topic “Me — the Young Entrepreneur”.
The seminar occupied the full course of the day of Monday March 29, beginning at 9:25 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m. Throughout the sessions, presentations were made to noteworthy students who were commended for their participatory contributions. These students included Keishana Harrigan, Santéé Maynard, Tia Phillip, Rayana Webster, Rodajah Connor, Jeronica Vanterpool, Ovinique Headly and Smailyn Carter.
The Club would like to extend thanks and heartfelt appreciation to the following sponsors: Ocean Echo Restaurant; Mary’s Bakery; Queen Sue; Sparkled by Tee; Kandy Kane Treats; Marva Smith’s Gift Bags; and Empress Nails.
– Staff Reporter, James Harrigan
