Girls urged to change the world
Published:Wednesday | April 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Ricardo Makyn, Gleaner Writer
As drama teacher Ann Marie Cephas complimented the young ladies of St Andrew Technical High School, their faces were alight with excitement.
The girls anxiously made their way into the S.W. Isaac Henry Auditorium to sit at the well-made up tables, decorated in white with artificial plants and colourful green, yellow, blue and pink napkins.
The day began with praise and worship, a lively chorus of I Ain't Gonna Study War No More being the highlight. A reading from Esther 2 and a song from a men's group from the Seventh-day Adventist movement seemed to have struck a chord with the audience.
Maybe it was the group's rendition of the popular You Raise Me Up.
Then Jovanni Sykes, member of the Hellshire Park Seventh-day Adventist Church, gave students a pep talk about Esther and how she changed the world. Sykes en-couraged students to do the same by being bold.
Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna had the young ladies in a frenzy, as they applauded her. Hanna, the guest speaker, spoke to the girls about identifying the characteristics in them that could change the world, and emphasised that it was not the popular people that brought change but the everyday individuals who have the power to do this.
Hanna further encouraged the young ladies to take their education seriously and also to build strong relationships among themselves, because it was those relationships that would help them in the future.