4 minute read
Building Bonds for Life - Atlantic Point Fortin's Finest Leadership Development Programme
Atlantic established the Point Fortin’s Finest Leadership Development programme in 2000. It has evolved into a 10year development intervention with a current enrollment of 249 students.
The top 10 students within the Borough of Point Fortin are announced annually, based on results of Secondary Entrance Assessment received from the Ministry of Education. Point Fortin’s Finest graduates have gone on to become professionals in various fields including in medicine, law, and entrepreneurship and serve the national community. Many return to the programme to mentor their younger counterparts.
Eleven-year-old Nathene Logie marvelled as she walked into Atlantic’s Point Fortin office in 2012. “I was excited and curious,” she recalls. “You’re going into this fancy building, and I knew my parents felt proud, so I felt proud, as this was an achievement.”
The Fanny Village Primary school student had not only passed for her first-choice school of St. Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando, she had also ranked as a top 10 performer in the Point Fortin area, which qualified her as one of Point Fortin’s Finest – Atlantic’s longstanding student leadership development programme.
Over the next 10 years, Nathene and her cohort of Point Fortin's Finest benefited from annual education bursaries and university grants. They assembled annually for “Camp” – two weeks of leadership training during the July/August vacation – where they were taught the basics of financial planning and time management, interacted with elite athletes, and received mentoring from some of the more senior Point Fortin's Finest students.
“That was the highlight of everybody’s vacation,” recalls Chelsea Mohammed, who entered Point Fortin's Finest in 2009, went on to study Electrical and Computer Engineering at university, and is now department manager at a local manufacturer at age 26. “We looked forward to that camp.”
Participants are exposed to sport, the arts, and hone their public speaking skills. As the annual cohort moves into Form 6, they are asked to function as junior managers at the camps for the incoming Point Fortin's Finest. “That big brother/big sister bond transpires for the rest of your life,” says Chelsea.
It’s a sought-after programme within the Point Fortin primary schools. Sustaining an intervention over a period of 10 years for each student is something you don’t typically hear about.
Atlantic LNG Sustainability Officer, Ian Ochoa
A field trip to Atlantic’s LNG plant was “mind blowing” for Nathene Logie, who was pursuing a UTT degree in Coastal and Ocean Management at the time and was excited about seeing the process of preparing Liquid Natural Gas for shipping. She also dug the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) – “having to wear the overalls and helmet and boots and stuff.
While pursuing tertiary education and receiving financial assistance that often goes directly to tuition, Point Fortin's Finest participants are introduced to working life, through World of Work internships. They’re counseled about career paths and assigned to departments within Atlantic and other partner organisations. They’re also taught to construct resumés and LinkedIn profiles.
For many, it’s the first exposure to the expectations of work: how to dress professionally and finish a task within deadline. “We logged our time in and out at the office,” observes Nathene, who graduated from the Point Fortin's Finest programme in 2021 and now works with current participants as a facilitator and programme assistant. “That helped with punctuality.”
Today, as she chats with fresh-faced Point Fortin's Finest participants about what to expect from the programme, Nathene often finds common ground. “I think they relate to me. We have a connection almost: I was where you are. I went through the programme, and I benefited and see how important it is, and that makes me want to help them as well.”
They made me into the person I am today and will definitely contribute to the person I will be in future.
Nathene Logie, Point Fortin's Finest participant - 2012 to 2021.
