The annual Turks & Caicos Islands Youth Congress was held today at the Gustavus Lightbourne Sports Complex in Providenciales and Gabriel Williams of Maranatha Academy emerged the winner and became the TCI’s Junior Minister of Tourism for 2019/2020.
The TCI Youth Congress, hosted annually by the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board during its Tourism Environmental Awareness Month celebration, is structured to mirror a Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) board of directors meeting. Today’s event signals the end of the reign of Ms. Danae Dennie nationally, however, having won the recent CTO Tourism Youth Congress held in Antigua, Ms. Dennie will continue to represent regionally. Both Ms. Dennie and Ms. Williams will attend CTO’s Tourism Youth Congress in 2020 where Ms. Dennie will chair the proceedings while Ms. Williams will represent the Turks and Caicos Islands as the current Junior Minister of Tourism.
The theme for this year’s TCI Youth Congress was ‘Developing Smart and Sustainable Caribbean Countries – Building Back Better’. There were eight participants from public and private high schools throughout the country. The participants, who were all fourth form students, were tasked with preparing a three minute oral presentation. Thereafter, a mystery question was presented to each participant and they were each allowed one minute to provide an answer.
The 2019 TCI Youth Congress yielded the following results:
1st Place and new Junior Minister of Tourism for 2019/2020 – Gabriel Williams of Maranatha Academy
2nd Place – Britney Gardiner of Raymond Gardiner High School
3rd Place – Jordan Melhado of Clement Howell High School
The other participants in the competition were:
Zara Oudman – Holy Family Academy
Narisel Swan – Helena Jones Robinson High School
Queen Forbes – Marjorie Basden High School
Nelcy Val – TCIPS Comprehensive
Nicala Bowe – Wesley Methodist High
The competition was judged by Mr. Earlston McPhee, Jacqueline Jemmitt and Sophia Williams on the following criteria: knowledge of subject area, level of preparedness, presentation of information, tone and tactfulness, poise and confidence and the mystery question.
Ms. E. Blythe Clare, lead coordinator of the TCI Youth Congress and Tourist Board Training Manager commented, “Congratulations to Miss Williams and we welcome her to our tourism team and wish her all the best as she will now be an ambassador for the Turks and Caicos Islands locally and internationally. Miss Danae Dennie has served exceptionally and we wish her all the best as continues to serve on the regional level. We were happy to welcome a new school to the competition this year – Holy Family Academy and we look forward to their continued participation. I wish to also register my profound thanks to the hardworking teachers who assist the students with preparing for this competition. Each year the level of competition rises and we appreciate the efforts of our students; they all represented their institutions well. Our team will now work along with Miss Williams to design two programs which she will launch nationally during her tenure”.
The premier sponsor for the TCI Youth Congress for over 10 years is Flow and the Tourist Board also extended gratitude to additional sponsors Provo Water Company, Lyndon and Delleriece Hall and Sonny’s Taxi.
