Ava-Gay Lindo, a graduate of Bethlehem Moravian College in St Elizabeth, was named the 2017 recipient of the Managing Director’s Award — Exceptional JN Youth Ambassador — during the JN Wise Aspiring Youth (JN WAY) Awards Banquet 2017, held at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge in Kingston last month.

One of 31 JN WAY ambassadors from 20 tertiary institutions across Jamaica who completed the fourth iteration of the initiative, 24-year-old Lindo distinguished herself among her peers during her year-long tenure, averaging up to 25 new or reactivated accounts each month.

The holder of an associate degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, Lindo said her greatest challenge as an ambassador was convincing people to open accounts and become regular savers with JN Bank.

“I had to persuade them and let them understand that saving is very important throughout their lives,” she said.

It was a lesson she had to learn herself.

“My view on savings before this programme was, ‘What is saving? As a young girl, live life’, but with JN Bank, I started to realise that saving is for rainy days and there will be emergencies where I will need money,” she noted.

Lindo hails from the parish of Portland and attended Sydney Pagon Agricultural High School in St Elizabeth before matriculating into Bethlehem. It was there, in 2016, that a lecturer, Nadine Black, encouraged her to apply to become a JN WAY Ambassador.

As well as winning the top ambassador award, Lindo was also named Sales Ambassador of the Year and JN WAY Marketer of the Year. She credits the success to persistence and hard work.

“I went out and just tried to get people to understand why it was important to save. I was always willing to answer questions about the products and JN Bank and just tried to represent the organisation to the best of my ability,” she shared.

Since its inception in 2014, the JN WAY programme has been responsible for the opening and reactivation of just over 2,000 savings accounts, which continue to be maintained.

Angela Fletcher, chief of sales, JN Bank, in congratulating the outgoing cohort of ambassadors, pointed out that they stood at the “front line of the organisation’s effort to engage with the next generation of movers and shakers in Jamaica”.

She noted further, “JN Bank continues to roll out new and innovative product offerings that we believe will meet the evolving needs of our clientele. Already, we have optimised our online banking experience, making it peerless in terms of functionality, range of services and responsiveness to the needs of our members.”

Sectional awards for Most Reliable, Most Improved, Team Leader and Team Player of the Year, were respectively presented to Suwayne Mendez of Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI); Kerece Stewart, also of CMI; Odale Sinclair, the University of Technology; and Rasheda Blake from Mobay Community College.