KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator Ruel Reid, is encouraging students to learn about their preferred career choice as well as to develop sound moral values. 

“Read, research and study as much as you can about your choice of career, about new developments and available opportunities that will enable you to pursue your goals. You should also consider honesty, integrity and commitment, which are important values,” he said. 

The minister was speaking at the second staging of the Children Upliftment and Restoration Foundation’s 2017 Success Conference for Teens, at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston yesterday. 

The conference was aimed at equipping students with the mindset to succeed and to provide them with mentors and expose them to different avenues for success. It was held under the theme ‘You are in the winner’s circle’. 

Reid further encouraged students to persevere when faced with obstacles, as this will enable them to remain for the “long haul” in life. 

The minister also urged them to develop and sharpen their talents and not to hide them. Doing so will enable them to “make it into the winner’s circle”.

Reid commended Conference Chairperson and Founder of Children Upliftment Restoration Foundation, Dr Velma Brown-Hamilton, for her investment in inculcating positive values and the development of the entrepreneurial spirit among the youth. 

Meanwhile, Custos of Kingston, Steadman Fuller, said Brown-Hamilton’s initiative has goals similar to those of the ‘I Believe’ programme in the office of the governor- general, Patrick Allen. 

“Programmes like these that are dedicated to the empowerment of our young people are an essential part of the process of preparing the next generation to use what is right with Jamaica to greatly impact the nation and the world,” said Mr. Fuller, who spoke on behalf of the Governor-General. 

Brown-Hamilton, said the idea for such a conference came as a result of providence. 

She said it was God who spoke to her to “feed the children”, which spurred its creation. 

The attorney-at-law and former Resident Magistrate noted that a “21st Century-ready set of teens, who are going to become the future of Jamaica and who are filled with the correct morals and attitudes, is needed.” 

The conference saw in attendance a number of speakers, such as Chief Executive Officer at International Travel and Culture Exchange, Poye Robinson; Bishop Henry Fernandez, and teen entrepreneur based in the United Kingdom, Shernova Abiona.