Winning with ‘Bimin’

IT was the creative marketing plan, which she titled ‘Bimin’, that resulted in 14-year-old Jada Hope, a Fourth Form student from The St. Michael School (SMS), being crowned the Junior Minister of Tourism 2017.

Speaking on Signature Tourism Products, she chose the topic because it was the one that would enable her to showcase her passion and talent in Art. “I chose that because I felt like I should apply myself about something which is Art and I am a very creative person, so I decided to take that approach and created something that was my own, which helped me to present it passionately,” Hope stated.

She further noted that it took her about a month to prepare, which included research on what attracts tourists to this island, among other areas and then creating an app to promote Barbados. This is an interactive, fun app which highlights places of interest and other recommended sites.

Though it was apparent to everyone in the audience who had won as Hope had the best presentation of all the nine students, the young lady said it was not as obvious to her as she was nervous and was just concentrating on delivering her speech to the best of her ability.

As for the advice for students looking to enter the competition next year, Hope said, “I would advise them to pray and to work hard to the best of their ability. Don’t worry about anyone else, focus on yourself and when they feel that they gave it their all, then they would be able to feel accomplished, whether they win or not.”

Meanwhile, Faculty Advisor of the SMS Dynamic Speakers and teacher, Alyssa Harewood, said that in her three years working with the students in that club, the last of which she was the head, one of the things that they aim to highlight in the club is giving the students free will to run with their own ideas, research and concepts and the teachers’ task is simply to guide them along the way. “They bring the words and we help them to be able to sell it.”

Harewood said that their aim was to select a representative who was invested in the competition and in fact, this is her advice to teachers helping students to prepare for 2018. “You need to start from the premise that the student is totally invested in it and it is not you pushing the student to do it, but the student is self-motivated and pushing themselves, so that what you are doing is just facilitating and guiding... And if you have a student with passion, you are good to go.”

And her advice to students is, “You really have to do your research and if you are interested in tourism, follow the regional competition. It is on YouTube and think about how you can be creative in making tourism even better for the country.”

Second place went to Matthew Weatherhead from Harrison College (HC), while Rhianna Smith from the Deighton Griffith School took home third place.