New Acting Principal for Elmore Stoutt High School Wade Tobin encouraged students to work hard and strive to be successful. Photo: Javon Liburd/VINO

Miss BVI 2012, also an English teacher at ESHS awarded two students gifts for them to capture their moments. Photo: Javon Liburd/VINO

The new Acting Principal Mr. Wade Tobin and the reigning Miss BVI 2012 Sharie de Castro, both gave students advice for a successful school year. 

Mr. Tobin, who now takes up the role of Principal of ESHS after many years as Principal at the Seventh Day Adventist Elementary and Secondary School, encouraged the students to be successful in whatever they do. 

Merging the entire school body, that consists of the students, teachers and the administration team, he stated that it is a family. 

He added that together, they should respect the family, respect themselves and respect those in authority. Principal Tobin stated that within the family, he expects them to be kind and compassionate, respect others and live by the word. 

“We must follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would want others do unto you.” 

Principal Tobin, asked them to live by the theme of the school year, which is ‘Creating a culture of excellence.” 

“What do we mean by creating a culture of excellence? We want you to be great, be the best who you can be, get good grades… work towards achieving certain goals, set high standards for yourself so that at the end of your school experience you can be happy when you can look back.” 

He advised the students to be critical thinkers, so that at the end of their school experience, they can go out into the communities and be the next great superstar. 

The newly appointed Acting Principal also singled out the female students, advising them to take pride in themselves and not to sell themselves short. 

“Take pride in your selves, be virtuous, don’t settle yourself just for a little cell phone, or for a little bling-bling; you’re worth more than that. Don’t share yourself, a bit here and a bit there, here a little there a little, by the time you’re finished there is nothing there to give. Tell the young men that you’re here to do your school work. The young men are only looking for something, and that something cannot be found in UP’s Cineplex. So I saying to you young ladies have respect and value for your selves, don’t be slack, carry yourself with pride.” 

He encouraged the young men to stay away from drugs especially marijuana. 

Mr Tobin advised that smoking and doing drugs is not good for you. “Young men when you smoke and when you do drugs there is a word call ‘sperm count’.. . and when you smoke and you do drugs, it lowers your sperm count, and when you’re really ready for action, that fellow can’t help you. But I am not promoting, the bible tells us that there is a time and place for everything [including] having sex. Sex is only for married people.” 

Mr. Tobin advised the students to stay focused, come to school and get their education so that they can go out into the community and do well. He also spoke about rules and advised them to always follow the rules, because they were made to be followed. “Rules are important, we must follow certain procedures, because there are some of us who are very selfish, and because we are by nature selfish people, we might want to do something that is not positive.” 

Meanwhile, Miss BVI who is also an English teacher at ESHS, provided some words of guidance, advising the students to focus, “just like a picture, you will never be successful until you focus. A picture lasts forever even if the people do not.” 

She added “if you focus on results you will never change, but if you focus on changing, you will have results. I encourage you to look through the lens of your life, and visualize the thing that you want to do; See it, feel it, believe it, make your mental blueprint of it and begin to work towards it.” 

Ms. de Castro also told the students to ‘take it light’, “while in classrooms, experiencing difficulties, while you’re trying to understand concepts and principles, the reality is, it’s just what you have to do to get through, why worry, worrying does nothing, and just like when you are editing a photo, you just have to crop out certain things and cut certain people out of your life, [if] they are hindering your success.” 

As part of her presentation, along with her theme of capturing the moment and taking it light, she gifted a young girl and a young boy a camera and a photo shoot. 

The young girl was lucky enough to find a photo of Ms. de Castro under her chair and the boy was chosen specially by the English teacher.