US Embassy brand ambassador encourages students to develop rural communities

WESTERN BUREAU:

Social media brand ambassadors attached to the US Embassy have encouraged approximately 50 students from Green Pond High School in St James that they do not have to abandon their rural communities to benefit from the country’s creative industries.

Jamieson Daley, content creator and US Embassy social media brand ambassador said a lot of students, especially in the rural communities believe that they need to be in the urban centres or places with a lot of resources to get a start in the arts and creative works.

“We want to, not only give you some skills and advice on how to get into the creative industry, but to show you that you can start your career, and start working in the creative industry while working and building your communities instead of leaving where you live to go and work in Kingston or into the heart of Montego Bay,” Daley said.

He was addressing students from grades seven through to 10 at a creative skills workshop held at the Green Pond High School on Tuesday, as part of a series designed to empower rural creators to better understand the importance of remaining in their communities.

The creative skills workshops are being presented in partnership between the United States Embassy in Jamaica and two Jamaican creatives, Jamieson Daley and Carlyle Grant, aim to address a critical need in rural schools across Jamaica by empowering students to explore the opportunities available in their parishes.

Students at Green Island High School in Hanover, Foga Road High in Clarendon, Yallahs High School in St Thomas and Happy Grove High School in Portland are expected to have their fair share of creative skills development exposure.

But while many talented individuals feel compelled to migrate to Kingston to establish themselves as creatives which has led to a disproportionate concentration of creative talents, in urban areas, while rural communities remain untapped reservoirs, Grant said creatives in rural communities have a better chance of telling the stories of their local communities and parish.

“We need more creatives to come forth and don’t think that they need to leave to make a name for themselves,” Grant said, noting that the creative art is a part of storytelling, and other parishes need their story to be told.

Kimoi ‘Vice’ Johnson and Nicola-Kaye Barnett engaged the students in lively presentations on graphic designing, public relations and marketing skills at Tuesday’s workshop.

Empowered and inspired

Those sessions left students empowered and inspired to remain in their rural communities and to use their creative skills to start their career pathways and develop their communities.

“I find the graphic designing workshop interesting, it also helps me to be more creative on how we communicate messages to our peers through my school’s social media club,” said Brianna Ricketts, a student and member of the Green Pond High School Social Media Club.

Her teacher, Beverly Jarrett, who is one of the school’s visual and performing arts teachers described the creative workshop series as an important initiative, noting that it served as a reinforcement of what the students have been exposed to in their internal school work.

“This workshop enforced what they have learned and it shows that in this changing world, it is important when you have a marketable skill,” Jarrett told The Gleaner at the end of the workshop.

She added that her students have embraced the information shared and will be looking towards building on public relations and marketing exposure to develop and improve her talents in the creative industry.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com