MONTEGO BAY, St James — Alayna Gibson’s dream is to be a fashion designer, and she believes lessons learnt from a one-day workshop hosted by the US Embassy at her school in Green Pond, St James, on Tuesday will help her reach that goal.

“I want to see big celebrities wearing my fashion,” Alayna told the Jamaica Observer following the event.

“I believe what I heard today will help me to reach that level in the future. I would want my name to be well known,” she added.

Alayna dreams of mixing classic fashion with more contemporary styles, and knows the importance of starting from early with marketing and brand development.

“I would like to see people wearing my clothes and enjoying it,” said the ambitious 15-year-old.

Like Alayna, eighth grader Demario Shaw also found the presentations insightful. He loves to draw, but after what he heard on Tuesday he now wants to venture into graphic design.

“My sister [had] told me that I can make money out of what I draw but with learning about this now, I am more encouraged to do that,” he remarked.

On the contrary, the presentations made Jessica Beckford even more determined to become an artist. She mainly does portraits now but would love to try painting and other forms of visual art.

“I would like to open a gallery,” she said wistfully.

The students were part of a creative skills workshop during which they learned about non-traditional jobs and the importance of personal branding. They were also introduced to graphic design and the wider aspect of marketing and public relations.

The presentations were done by graphic designer Kimoi “Vice” Johnson and Nicola-Kaye Barnett, respectively, who had the students transfixed as they explained both fields.

Green Pond High teacher Stacy Harvey is the coordinator of clubs, and most of the students who participated in the workshop are club members. She explained that with the evolving world of work, the workshop is expected to help students make decisions on future career paths.

“That’s the way we are steering into now because kids don’t only look at being doctors and lawyers anymore; they are now going off into blogging and doing all other kinds of things — including designing stuff,” Harvey stated.

“It will be a plus for them, and we welcome this,” Harvey continued.

US Embassy social media brand ambassadors Carlyle Grant and Jamieson Daley are team leads on the project that will benefit several rural schools. They explained that a big part of this project is to demonstrate to students the opportunities and options available to them.

“A lot of students, especially in the rural communities, believe that they need to be in urban centres — where there are places with lots of resources — [so as] to get started in art and creative works,” Daley said.

“We want to not only give them some skills and advice on how to get into it but to show them you can start your career in the creative industry while being in your community, working in your community, and building your community,” he added.

For Grant, this provides the opportunity for the creative industry to be incorporated into more sections of Jamaica.

“Creative arts is a form of storytelling, and other parishes need their stories to be told. We feel like there are enough stories of Kingston and other urban areas, and other parishes are underserved. We want more creatives to come forth — and we don’t think that they need to leave [their communities] to make a name for themselves,” stated Grant. The US Embassy team will move to several other high schools with this message.

Planned stops include Green Island High School in Hanover, Yallahs in St Thomas, and Happy Grove High in Portland.