As another year begins, a new group of leaders take on the big responsibilities: being prefects, captains and head girls. I spoke to the outgoing leaders about their experiences and how it changed them for the better.
St. Dominic’s: Outgoing Captain, N’Gere Duke
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“It has made me a more outgoing person. It made me more patient and accepting of others, more responsible too. You have to balance your work and balance a lot of different activities in the house. It also made me encourage sisterhood in the house as well.”
“What is something that you want the new incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“We actually got our house closer, especially around sports time, so we’d like them to continue that. This is not really a sports year but maybe the Carnival activities should help them to continue what we started with that. So sisterhood within the house, let everybody know each other and be close and just have a good relationship.”
Outgoing Vice Captain, Sarah Ali
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“Personally, I was never an outgoing person when I was younger, however, becoming a captain is something I always wanted to do. I had an older cousin who passed through this school and I just admired these girls growing up. I knew I always wanted to be one and it pushed me to be a little more outgoing and become more of a people’s person. Before elections were very competitive. It gives you backbone. You learn to deal with new situations and build confidence in yourself. You learn who your real friends are and who support you.”
“What is something you want the upcoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“Our year was generally a very active and spirited year. We realized the school needed somebody to boost more school and house spirit. We held meetings and came up with new ideas like Cultural Day so that the girls will have some kind of platform to just express who they are and be more comfortable in their school. We tried to build that bond, love and sense of community. We really hope the new captains coming in can carry that on. The girls need a constant reminder of how this can be their home but sometimes they get lost in all the stress and pressure that school comes with so I think it’s important that they keep up that lightness and joy that come with being part of the Holy Name community. Also, I did the blood drive so there’s a sense of arms giving and community service, which I think that the school should get a little more involved in as well.”
St. Catherine’s: Outgoing Captain, Dionne Eckstein
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“I would say that I have become a more patient person because having to work with the girls during sports day, different personalities would clash and as a captain, you try to encourage the house but you don’t want to push them to the extent where they feel like they’re being forced. Also, just to accommodate different ideas from other people has taught me to become more open-minded and more accepting.”
“What is something that you want the new incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“Every year, each house has their respective Saint day and usually the captains have to put activities in place to build house spirit. What Thalia and I did is that we made sure to educate the house on what our Saint did and why she is so great. I just hope the future captains could keep that up because to me, that’s a common ground to improve communal bondage within the different people in the house.”
Outgoing Vice Captain, Thalia Galindo
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“This leadership experience changed my character for the better because it encouraged me to grow into my own person. I became more confident in myself, more sure and positive. It made me communicate better with others and to understand not only my worth but people’s worth and not to be negative. always think on the positive side and always try to give everyone a chance. It just makes me more understanding towards people’s feelings. Before I was very blunt but now it made me a little more aware of people and trying to cater for all. This position really allowed me to grow and helping other people.”
“What is something that you want the incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“I would love if they continue to build unity among the house because it is so important for us women to be connected and to understand each other’s role in society because it’s really crucial for women to empower other women. I would tell the incoming captains to continue to encourage the girls in house spirit, in their Saint day, doing sports events, anything that builds unity among the house. These girls are going to grow into women and be in the real world and it’s really good for women to always have that unity and bond in a patriarchal society.”
St. Albert’s Outgoing Captain, Chanell McIntosh
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“Before I was a captain, I would say I was kind of a judgmental person. But after becoming a captain, it kind of forces you to become more understanding because you’re dealing with 100+ girls. Each of them has their own problems, when they don’t listen or they have an attitude you can’t yell at them, you have to be understanding”
“What is something that you want the upcoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“For the presentations that we had to do before we became captain, my theme was on togetherness. I find as a school before, we weren’t really together. Everything was about competition and it was very unhealthy competition, saying things like “Catherine’s! We want to win because we are the best!” and “Catherine’s is bleached out Dominic’s!”. Yes, I appreciate healthy competition but when it gets to the point when you have to bash others, that’s what I didn’t like. I wanted to change this, so I started my campaign on togetherness. I want Sarah and Marcia (incoming captain and vice-captain) to continue the togetherness and appreciate all the houses.”
Outgoing Vice Captain, Kaela King James
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“During my tenure as a vice-captain, it really helped me to grow into a more understanding person, having to deal with the different personalities or issues the girls would come to you with. It helped me to balance my time, so time management was an important lesson that I learnt, especially with a sports year, it was very hectic and then Mock Exams and CAPE. It required me to focus more and it also required a lot of discipline.”
“What is something you want the incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“Well, St. Albert’s, as of late, had house spirit problem. Chanell and I, we really tried to help the girls understand the meaning of house spirit or just the joy that can come from it. I would like Marcia and Sarah to continue pushing this issue or pushing the campaign for unity because that is our house motto. Strength in Unity. Without that, you can’t have anything.”
St. Rose’s: Outgoing Captain, Tamia-Ashley Tuitt
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“I think that before I became captain, I was a lot more reserved. I wasn’t as outgoing as I am right now. Being in the captaincy position, as I have a lot of girls looking up to me, coming to me for questions on everything that’s going on in school, I had to be a lot more open and outgoing. I learnt to be more welcoming and nicer. More open and willing to talk to people and get my point across the way I want it to. I realized who I can count on. Alyssa was my best friend throughout this whole captaincy position. She was always calm and knew how to get things done, while I was a little more hotheaded and short tempered. She really calmed me down so I’m not as anxiety-fueled as I was before.”
“What is something you want the incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“When I became a captain, what I promised my girls is that we need to have trust and faith in each other. Being able to come up to anybody, if it’s in your house or somebody in your school and not be scared that somebody is going to reject you or say something that isn’t too nice. I told Nyomi that they need to be open, the same way I had to open up, they need to be like that. I would like the incoming captains to put on that persona so that the girls continue to feel comfortable and loved in the Rose’s and school community. Also, house and school spirit on the whole because once we get the drive, we can really do anything.”
Outgoing Vice Captain, Alyssa Ramcoomarsingh
“How has this leadership experience change your character for the better?”
“Honestly, when I went up for the position, I didn’t expect to get it in the first place. After I got it I wanted to focus on gaining confidence while I was in form 6. I believe that the captaincy position really helped a lot with that. You really had to maintain your composure all the time, settle disagreements between anyone else and you had to speak to any of the students lot more calmly and with lots of patience in order to deal with them.”
“What is something you want the incoming captains to continue pursuing?”
“One thing we wanted to accomplish was more school spirit and house spirit because we found that that was lacking before we entered. I really hope that the captains make an effort to keep that up. They’re making the effort right now with the Carnival jump up, but just to keep that up and get everyone to be so into their school and actually be proud to say ‘I’m from Holy Name Convent’.”
General: Outgoing HeadGirl, Vivian Wall
“What was your biggest challenge?”
“The biggest challenge that I had in being head girl would be getting people to deliver and work together. For example, you’d have a lot of empty promises, a lot of offers to help and people simply wouldn’t follow through. That puts a lot of weight on the head girls or whoever it is carrying out the task because everything that everyone else said that they would do or that they were supposed to do, they didn’t do it. It just adds to the load of things that you have to do. That’s definitely the biggest challenge: getting people to deliver and to execute what it is they said they were going to do.”
“What is something you started that you would like to see the upcoming head girls continue?”
“There are two things our year group started. The first thing that we did was, right before we went into July-August vacation, we had a talent week. We had spoken word competitions, inter-house debate and we just had the girls portraying whatever aspect of their talent that they wanted to. We also had a fashion show that was mostly run by the girls. That’s something I definitely want to see continue. Not just talent in terms of singing and dancing, but spoken word or anything it is that they do. The second thing is the Cultural Day, I think it’s great in terms of appreciating the diversity that Trinidad and Tobago has and especially because our school is diverse. I definitely want to see that continue.”
Outgoing Vice HeadGirl, Amy Alexis
Thank you to all the leaders who put their precious time, effort and talent towards the betterment of the school.