DR Janet Dyer’s upbringing was no bed of roses, but today she’s ensuring that the young people she comes in contact with are encouraged to fulfil their dreams.

Dr Dyer, 53, was born and raised in Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth, where she spent most of her time learning to weave baskets under the guidance of her grandmother. Selling these baskets provided partial funding for her schooling at St Elizabeth Technical.

Throughout her teenage years the young girl set her sights on becoming a nurse or a teacher, spurred on by the unkind remarks of a family member that she would “become nothing in life, except clean people’s dirty floors and have a host of children”.

“I decided right there and then that I was going to prove to the world that despite my circumstances I was not going to clean people’s floors or have a host of children. I told her that by age 40 I would have a PhD, be driving a black SUV, and that she was going to come and ask me for a job. She laughed; but I attained the PhD a month before my 40th birthday; I was driving — not a black, but a silver and black SUV, and was in a position for her to come and seek a job, and she did.

“I told her that if there were any vacancies I would let her know, and I reminded her about what she had said 20 years before. She cried, and I told her that it was water under the bridge, because perhaps if she hadn’t said it to me, I would not be where I am now,” Dr Dyer told All Woman.

Today Dr Dyer, who considers herself a champion for young people, has gained associate professor of hospitality education training from the International Hospitality Training Institute, and is the director principal of the HEART College of Hospitality Services/Cardiff Hotel and Spa, formerly Runaway Bay HEART Academy, where she was among the first batch of residential trainees in 1987.

The journey to this point, however, was plagued by so many challenges that Dr Dyer had to keep striving to overcome her doubts that she would succeed.

She said that after leaving high school she was accepted to study at the following institutions: Church Teachers’ College, CAST (now UTech), Shortwood Teachers’ College and the University of the West Indies. Lack of financial resources, however, blocked her path to higher education. A young mother by that time, she decided to enrol at the Runaway Bay HEART Academy to study hospitality/resort skills.

“The same day I started at HEART, my son was one year old. My mother said she wasn’t going to raise any grandson, and I told her to call the police because I was leaving to make life better for all of us. [At that point] she told me to go and make a better life. My class graduated a year later, and I was the valedictorian. My mother went to Santa Cruz and phoned me to say how proud she was,” Dr Dyer shared.

A year later she was awarded a scholarship by the Jamaica Tourist Board to Hocking College in the United States, where she became the first international student to win the presidential award for academic excellence and leadership skills. She completed her two-year course in a record 11 months with a grade point average of 4.0 and an associate degree in applied sciences – hospitality and tourism management.

She returned home to join SuperClubs, where she worked for different properties in the chain to hone her managerial skills. She achieved a Bachelor of Science degree in professional management in 1994, and in 1997 attained an MBA with specialisation in human resources management, both from Nova Southeastern University in the US. Named manager of the year for Boscobel Beach Hotel in 1996, Dr Dyer continued her quest for excellence, and in 1997 achieved certification in operations management through the School of Hospitality in Nassau, Bahamas.

Dr Dyer rejoined her Runaway Bay team in 1998 as head of technical skills, and in 2001 became the first female in the island to be designated Certified Hotel Administrator, a position at the time held by men only. She was voted boss of the year for the HEART Trust/NTA in the parish of St Ann in 2009. That same year she attained a PhD in hospitality and tourism management from Washington University in the US, was awarded the Governor General’s Achievement Award for leadership and volunteerism, and was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for St Ann. She was recently appointed to the Governor General’s management committee, and is currently completing a second doctorate in leadership policy and change in education with Walden University, USA.

In 2010, Dr Dyer was seconded to the Ministry of Education to the Career Advancement Programme, and returned to the Runaway Bay HEART Hotel and Training Institute in 2013 to prepare the institution for its launch as the HEART College of Hospitality Services on February 20, 2014.

Also a trained cosmetologist and netballer, Dr Dyer is a member of the Runaway Bay Police Youth Club and does marriage and career counselling in her community to help steer people in the right direction.

A mother of three, Dr Dyer also shared that she makes it her point of duty to interact with her students at HEART to let them know that their difficult circumstances do not necessarily determine their outcome.

“I am one of those people who is not ashamed to say where I am coming from, not ashamed of my background, and to say many times I went to school barefooted, had to eat mangoes and drink water for lunch. But I ensure I help people to that point where they can help others,” she declared.

“My message to young people is that life is a two-way street. There are times when we choose to take the smoother path which does not always take us to where we want to be. Step into the unknown, take the path less trodden. Sometimes the path less trodden takes us to the pearly gates.”