J’ca-born teacher writes book to help young people
During the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom (UK) last year, Jamaica-born educator and life coach Vanice Ricketts spent close to three months with some of her students.
Due to lockdown, some students, dependent on where they were from, could not go home. So she stayed with them at the institution. These interactions, she said, gave her the inspiration to write her debut book, titled How to Build and Maintain Confidence in Young People.
In a recent interview with THE STAR, Ricketts, 47, said the book was written to assist young people to build and maintain confidence, as well as to help them properly navigate through challenges. “In 2020, when the pandemic was sweeping through the UK, I spend 10 weeks in lockdown with a group of young people and we had many conversations, and their views were an inspiration for me to pen the book. I want it to be a guide for adults also who are faced with difficult situations. There are steps in there on how they can overcome them. This is something that the world needs at this time, because there are a lot of distractions all around,” she said.
She stressed that the book, which was released in March, is not just to earn another dollar; it is a way to groom the younger generation. Ricketts, who has been teaching for 15 years, said she has managed to capture all aspects of what confidence is within the chapters, and has dispelled the misconceptions surrounding the meaning of the words ‘arrogance’ and ‘credence’.
“I want to help people to get up from where they are and to be where they want to be in their mind’s eye. I feel good whenever I take a person from one point to a next. It makes me happy to see someone pursue their dreams,” Ricketts said.
mJamaican living in the United States has returned home to invest in her home town of Port Antonio, Portland, amidst the COVID-19 crisis, so as to create sustainable employment for the local people and to provide women with timeless fashions.
This entrepreneur, Theresa White, who has her own line of clothing and is a designer, opened an all- women clothing store, ChicByT, at Bridge Street in the resort town, retrofitted with varying clothing designs and fabulous fashion, including evening wear and designer dresses. She said that the store is the first of three establishments that she plans to open which will showcase the very best in women’s classic clothing for distinct occasions, while bringing the