TEAM members from Sandals Resorts in the Montego Bay region have launched the resort’s Mentorship 2.0 programme at Flanker Primary and Infant School by sharing special sessions with the school population, inclusive of grade six students who will be sitting the Primary Exit Profile examinations this year.

The resorts — Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Royal Caribbean — have also been assisting with providing meals for students attending the PEP Saturday classes so they have a proper nutritional programme as they prepare for their exams.

The group of enthusiastic mentors on January 26 staged role plays and sought to build the self-esteem of the students as well as heighten their confidence, particularly those taking the exams.

The mentorship session will take place once per month and will feature Sandals team members from various departments at the two resorts.

The students expressed their gratitude for the advice and love shared by the team members and thanked them for caring enough to take time out of their busy work schedule to impart their knowledge and experience with them.

Ian Spencer, the company’s regional public relations manager for Montego Bay, said, “Our team members were happy and very receptive to becoming mentors to the Flanker Primary students. Many of them have had their lives transformed by mentors in their formative years and saw this opportunity as a way of giving back.”

Spencer noted that his company was delighted to provide this level of support for the students, understanding well the level of anxiety associated with PEP and other internal exams as well as the challenges young people face fitting into today’s society.

The sessions are being dubbed Mentorship 2.0 because this is an upgraded version of those undertaken in the past, featuring more interaction with the mentees.

“Our team members were cognisant of the fact that students are in need of role models and guidance,” Spencer said. “My team understands what these kids are going through as they have all been there. This is really a labour of love and one we are very happy to perform.”

The Sandals regional PR manager was effusive in his praise for Flanker Primary Principal Collette Barnes who has overseen a transformation of the school and re-energised the surrounding communities to assist the institution. “We have created a dynamic partnership with the principal and, by extension, the school population,” Spencer observed. “And we are steadfast in our efforts to transform the lives of the next generation of Jamaican leaders.”

Principal Barnes lauded the efforts of the Sandals team in coming to the assistance of the school and said she was looking forward to a continued, long-term relationship. “We have developed a great partnership with Sandals and other business enterprises which has assisted greatly in the improvements at our institutions,” Barnes noted.

Jonique Bramwell, a member of Sandals’ entertainment department, said she was more than happy to donate her time to the mentorship effort as her growth had been fuelled by her own mentors. “I am proud to be giving back to our country’s youth, particularly in Flanker, a community about which some people have a negative perception,” she highlighted.