This Week We Feature Young Professional Asheina Lennard
This week’s Young Professional, Asheina Lennard, is an entrepreneur with a fascinating outlook on life. She is always keen on trying new things and is passionate about her pursuits towards her ultimate goal of becoming her own boss.
Originally from North Sound in Virgin Gorda, Asheina started her journey at the Robinson O’Neal Primary School before moving over to the Bregado Flax Educational Centre. She later attended the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) before entering the world of work.
Asheina, the eldest of five siblings, believes that she had a great childhood especially since she didn’t grow up “on computers”. “I grew up running through the bushes, catching fowls and playing with my cousins; running [between rocks] because where I lived in Virgin Gorda, there were mostly rocky hillsides,” she said. Asheina also recalled growing up in a family setting with all of her cousins around her in a family yard. She also recalled being much of a tomboy.
She studies Small Business Management at the local college and complements this with a Medical Billing and Coding course online.
“I find that people choose to go to college to study what they love or their passion or what they think would make them money…” she said. But she felt many persons do not actually take a look at what the job market offers or the openings at various companies to choose their classes.
She has worked in various fields and at several places including Folio, a small Trust Company, Serendipity Bookstore and Native Son. She also worked at a restaurant and salon where she was able to hone in on her exceptional talent as a hairstylist.
Asheina describes herself as a bookworm and said she may often read a book per day if she’s in the mood. According to our Young Professional, she was able to familiarise herself with over seven hundred different books while working at the bookstore.
The aspiring entrepreneur said she was motivated by the fact that she was able to work on a commission basis at the bookstore and also because she had much freedom while on the job. “It taught me a lot about business and about dealing with people and customer service which I love as well,” our Young Professional expressed.
After four years at the bookstore, Asheina decided to move on to another opportunity and said she next worked in the field of photography, along with Hezekiah Maddox. She was also able to learn graphic designing in the process and said it was also something she grew to like.
Our Young Professional confessed that she wanted to become a lawyer or own a business someday and noted this was one of the reasons she chose the Small Business course which she felt would allow her to eventually become her own boss.
With the Medical Billing and Coding course, however, she has taken a direct look at the Peebles Hospital extension and decided that there would be need for more advancement in what is required for the facility. She reasoned that some private practices may already be using these services.
Asheina also dreamed of owning a business that everyone else didn’t have while still managing to have something that was needed and this may just be what she has achieved in her current pursuit.
Natures All Natural
Today, Asheina has turned what started out as a hobby into a budding business interest and continues to fascinate observers at her skills in this regard. She explained that boredom often led her to cooking or baking and she would even bake a cake which she decorates as if it were for sale and give it away, simply because she felt like baking.
She related that it was boredom that also led her in the direction of soap making. Her first attempt at soap making entailed combining the unwanted and unused remainders of soap bars around her home into one container and unbelievably, microwaving its contents to melt it into one object.
“We started using it in the bathroom to wash our hands and it was actually lasting longer than the original bars of soap,” she related. From there, she decided that she wanted to continue making soap on her own and did research online and bought books to find out just how this is done.
“I like to make things from scratch, I don’t’ make cake with the box… ” she said.
She wasn’t satisfied with her first attempts but continued her research despite her scepticism about the use of the chemical lye in the making of soap. “It’s really dangerous, so I was kind of afraid of using the lye,” she said. But after willing herself to buy the lye she went through a process of trial and error and started the process of soap making.
That was two years ago and she has since enhanced her skills tremendously at soap making. She uses all natural oils as her base in making soap, including Shea butter, coconut oil, castor oil and olive oil among others. She also incorporates plants and fruits in coming up with most of her ingredients for the products that she puts out.
She has used mango, carrots, passion fruit, oatmeal, neem and moringa (tree of life) in addition to others. The carrot soap, she explained, takes as many as fifteen hours to complete. She also makes oil products for hair styling.
The soaps are made in many interesting shapes and designs, including food products such as pastry. Asheina said she believes that making soaps that look like things to eat comes from her passion for cooking. Soap making, she said, is always on her mind and she tries her best to represent the Virgin Islands in a positive way as she goes forward.
She visited St Croix, USVI recently as part of their Agriculture Week observations and described this as a real learning experience. “I realised certain areas where I need to step it up,” she said while noting areas where she could have increased her visibility such as banners. She is now looking forward to going to other places to showcase her talent that comes from the Virgin Islands.
Asheina is also hopeful that her products would one day enter all the hotels around the Territory and is working feverishly towards achieving this goal. She described shipping bulk quantities of the products that she needs for her soap making as one of her biggest challenges. Sometimes she even has to cut down on her order sizes because of this.
So far, she said she has received ninety-nine percent positive feedback for the soaps and oils that she makes.
Our Young Professional advises that aspiring youths disregard “small minded” people in attempting to achieve their goals. “I find people tend to highlight what you’re doing wrong rather than congratulate you for what you’re doing right,” she said.
She advised that youths find their passion and just follow it. She also felt that there were a lot of talented youths in the Virgin Islands and they were often made to feel that if they are not wearing a jacket and tie, then they were not in a good enough job. Youths should surround themselves with people that encourage them to do better and not those that encourage them to do worse, Asheina added.
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