It’s up, up, up for Melissa Whyte

AT 28, Melissa Whyte has worked hard and proven herself enough to convince the management of Jamaica Cosmetic Dental Services Limited that she was worthy of being appointed their office manager.

In addition to this, Whyte spent the last three years trying to prove to the directors and members of the Rotaract Club of St Andrew that she was capable of becoming their president, and was on June 27 appointed to the post as the fourth female president.

“I love the fact that I am not only a leader at work, but now a well-respected leader in Rotaract,” she tells All Woman.

“One of my major challenges in the past was that I was very shy. However, as women we have to come out of our little-girl boxes and take charge. Perhaps if you had told me five years ago that I was going to become president of a Rotaract Club, I would have said ‘definitely not’.”

Whyte will serve as president for the next 12 months, an experience the petite graduate of Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania says she is looking forward to.

“This will be a new and exciting journey for me. As president this year, I will not only focus on our members, but also various sectors that we can give back to. Our motto says, ‘Fellowship through service,’ and this is one guideline I will use to lead while serving as president. Not only will I focus on making our members more interested to come to club meetings, but I will also focus on how we can serve others while having fun.”

And she says her day job has mentally prepared her for how to deal with her new role as president.

“As the office manager, I am responsible for human resource and the business aspect of the dental office. We have the dentists there who deal with the dentistry side of the business, and I deal with the business aspect of it. Anything that has to deal with staffing, ordering of materials, anything that has to deal with business, that relates to me,” she says.

She says the development of a woman more often than not depends on the support of another woman, and as such credits her mother Shermaine Robotham for being a positive influence in her life.

“She has always been there for me and she is my real support system. For that I really want to big her up.”

The holder of a bachelor’s degree in business management, Whyte says her daily motivation is just being positive.

“Once you are negative, everything around you is negative. Once I get up, I say to myself, ‘You are strong. You are beautiful.’ It helps me to get up out of bed no matter what I am going through. You just need to have a positive mindset.”