Twenty-two students from various classes of the Parkinson Memorial School had an exciting opportunity when they got to visit the offices of Goddard Enterprises Ltd (GEL) to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The students were selected by Guidance Counsellor Kara Maynard who accompanied the girls on the outing when they were collected by a coach and transported to the GEL offices at 11 am for various group sessions with company employees including executives.
“We have girls here today from age 11 right to up 16-year-olds. I chose them because of their different levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. I want them to experience meeting with older positive role models and to understand the dynamics of working together and building positive relationships with other girls,” stated Maynard.
Stephanie Edghill of the Accounts department leads the discussion with the students, as they interacted with the ladies there.
“Normally Goddard will do this with senior students, but I wanted to include others from the junior school to be able to expose them to the opportunity early and to get them to feel better about themselves so that a core of students would benefit from the sessions and they, in turn, can influence others in their respective year groups,” she added.
She went on to explain that five students were chosen from the five year groups in the school (three students were unable to attend).
When the students arrived at GEL, they were welcomed by Head Office People Coordinator Valerie Lovell, and Deborah Elcock of the Payroll Department led a group discussion on Gender Equity vs Equality. They were then divided into groups and each group was assigned to a different department with staff and executives who work in that department. They were given various topics to discuss, and the girls were allowed to share their ideas.
Shareka Clarke of the Admin department makes a point during the discussion of the goals and dreams of the students.
Those who went to the Accounts department talked about anger management and how to deal with certain situations. The members of the Manufacturing department gave the girls a short quiz on social media content and then discussed the answers revealing what they should or should not post on social media.
The girls who sat with the women of the Legal department discussed the gifts and attributes that everyone is given and how to use them effectively while the group that was entertained by the Admin department discussed how to set goals and objectives and how to visualise their dreams and share those dreams as they work towards them.
After being served a sumptuous lunch prepared by the Goddard Catering Group, the girls came together to share what they had learnt during the visit in a session led by Group Chief Financial Officer Natasha Small.
The students as they answered the social media quiz questions posed by Natasha Walkes and the Manufacturing team.
“We are happy to share International Women’s Day with students of the Parkinson School every year,” stated Valerie Lovell. “We adopted the school a few years ago and we try to come up with different, meaningful activities to do with the students that would assist them in their life’s journey.”
In past years, GEL has donated books written by female authors for IWD, staff members have also visited the school on that day to deliver talks to the girls.
