Virgin Islands News Online brings to the spotlight, our Young Professional for this week, Mrs. Surbhi Hodge-Williams.

In her current capacity as a Student Success Officer and Lecturer in Computer and Office Skills at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, Mrs. Williams who resides in Cane Garden Bay, is a role model and the ‘go-to’ person that many students and many other individuals turn to for information on a variety of subjects. And while she takes particular pride in this role, her journey to success and fulfilment has taken many interesting turns.

With strong values of Christianity and the practices of Seventh Day Adventist laid upon her, Mrs. Williams attended schools that encouraged the same principles that her family abided by. She attended the Road Town Seventh Day Adventist School from 1982 to 1989, the then BVI High School, now Elmore Stoutt High School from 1989 until 1994.

She later matriculated at Oakwood University, a Seventh Day Adventist affiliated institution in Huntsville, Alabama.

After high school, she spent a year working with the Information Systems Unit (Government of the Virgin Islands), where the idea to pursue a career in computer studies began to germinate.

She consequently enrolled at Oakwood as a computer studies major, but after her initial studies in this area, she found that computer studies was not the right fit for her and she started to explore other options at Oakwood. She found the field of Business Education suited her needs and she received her Bachelors degree in this area in 2000.

Upon her return to the Territory after graduation, our Young Professional undertook employment with the Government of the Virgin Islands as a Human Resources Assistant Manager. In this capacity, she was responsible for drafting letters, assisting Heads of Departments in managing matters related to officers’ job appointments and tenure, and completing other administrative tasks. Afterwards, she spent four years at the then BVI High School as a business education teacher, instructing students in fundamentals of keyboarding and office procedures.

Later, as she pursued other professional pursuits, our ambitious Young Professional was driven to continue her academic studies, which led her to enrol in an online Masters Degree programme with Everest University. She completed her graduate degree in Human Resources Management in 2011.

In addition to all these endeavours, Mrs. Williams in 2006 accepted an offer to work on a part-time basis at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in the Technical Vocational Education (TVET) Programme. This undertaking has enabled her to tutor and mentor students who had previously been unsuccessful in completing secondary school and to assist them in achieving certification. “My ability to interact effectively with the students while motivating them to achieve was commended and recognized by the College and led to an offer of fulltime employment.”

She is currently at the end of her third year at the College and she thoroughly enjoys the work she does in helping students to achieve their goals. As part of her daily duties at HLSCC, Mrs. Williams counsels students who are ready to transfer to four year colleges, by guiding them to choose the correct schools based on field of interest, location, fees, student teacher ratio. She is also administering a pilot student peer mentoring programme and is working on bringing a structured and formal student study group programme to fruition. Mrs. Williams is also particularly proud to continue her dedicated work with the students in the TVET programme.

When asked about influences on her life, Mrs. Williams readily offers the names of Mrs. Miranda Thompson - her maternal aunt who she credits with molding her as a young woman and in whose footsteps she followed as a business studies educator, and Mrs. Arlene Smith-Thompson, her former high school stenography teacher and the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Works. Mrs. Smith-Thompson, she said, challenged and encouraged her as a student and provided a stellar example of a professional educator and in recruiting her as an instructor for the TVET Programme.

Additionally, she credits coming from two families of hardworking Virgin Islanders for her strong work ethic and determination to succeed: her two grandfathers fearlessly navigated the Caribbean Sea in order to support their families, her father is a self-taught heavy equipment operator and entrepreneur, and her mother operates a thriving home-based health care business.

She feels compelled to keep this legacy alive. “My grandfather, Capt. Warren Stoutt, worked very hard all his life and he left behind a seed that all his children and grandchildren learned from. He taught us that it pays to work hard.”

Other than engaging in hard work, Mrs. Williams enjoys singing, and is a proud member of the local trio Trinity. “I love singing. I jokingly tell my friends that I have two personalities. When I am singing, I’m a whole different person.”

She also enjoys spending time with family and friends, especially her two daughters: Zahra (10) and Ajyla (8). “I balance my time. I make time for family, for friends and for work and I am able to manage it to run my days smoothly.”

Mrs. Williams is also a vibrant member of the Trinity Book Club and serves as an advisor for a local empowerment and educational organisation for young women, WOPAHP.

This week’s Young Professional did not take the path that many claim they have taken to arrive at the role of educator: she did not have childhood dreams of managing a classroom and molding young minds. Instead, her journey has taken many interesting twists and turns. Asked if given the chance if she would do anything differently, Mrs. Williams unequivocally states that she would do it all over again. She said her journey and where she is right now have a lot to do with the decisions she made and she has no regrets.

By way of advice, she encourages young Virgin Islanders to set goals that are meaningful and achievable. According to her, “after setting goals you will be able to have a clearer journey. Going through life without goals and dreams is a sure path to failure.”

She also advises youth to develop relationships with people in society who can have a positive influence on them and who they would like to emulate in the future. And based on all that she has accomplished thus far and continues to accomplish, it is clear that Surbhi Hodge-Williams is one such example.