Three years ago, Kierra John decided to leave Elmore Stoutt High School and enroll at the newly renamed Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies to pursue her dream of a career in culinary arts.
“I was not worried about the stigma about the school at that time,” Ms. John said on Friday as she joined seven others who formed the first set of grade 12 VISTS graduates. “My mom encouraged me and said if it was what I wanted to do I should go ahead and do it. I neglected what the naysayers had to say, and I did it.”
During the ceremony at their campus, Ms. John and her classmates were praised for being the first graduates from the school since its official change from the BVI Technical and Vocational Institute to VISTS.
Formerly, the school, which accepted mainly students with academic and behavioral challenges, had a negative reputation in the community, according to Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn.
“I do not think that anyone ever imagined that the top student in the territory would come from this school, but the top student from the territory of the Virgin Islands is from this school,” he said during the ceremony.
SEE THE JUNE 29, 2017 EDITION FOR FULL COVERAGE.
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