Teachers are one of the most important careers of society as they help to produce other careers. They have a variety of skills that enhance the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student.
Valencia Apphia Ashley La Rose was born on 17th February, 1995 to Vidia Ragbeer and the late Hansel LaRose. She hails from Plantation Ross, on the West Coast of Berbice and has been a trained teacher for 8 years. She attended the Mahaicony Secondary School, The Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and recently the University of Guyana (UoG). Her initial career was to be an accountant.
“Becoming a teacher was never a part of my dreams while growing up. However, my aunt, Rev. Diana Honeyghan encouraged me to apply to the Cyril Potter College of Education(CPCE),” said Valencia.
Her application was successful and she began pursuing studies at CPCE. Nonetheless, her journey at CPCE was both challenging and exciting. It was Challenging because Valencia had to leave her mother’s home and live on her own. However, she made new friends who aided in making her personal and academic life easier.
After completing her two years at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), she graduated with an Associate Degree in Education. Her teaching career began at Lichfield Primary School. She started teaching at the age of nineteen. Some of the students at her school saw her as being young and inexperienced.
She added, “Some of the students made many days quite difficult for me, especially with their indiscipline behaviour. However, over the years I’ve grown and things got better. I enjoy working with them daily and I also learn a lot from them.” She added, “I later grew to love teaching and I am very passionate about my job. It gives me great joy when I see that I can make a difference in the lives of our nation’s children.”
Wanting to further her studies, she applied to the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC) in 2020 and recently graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. “My journey throughout university was very challenging since my classes began during the Covid-19 pandemic, where all classes were shifted online. Completing group assignments was the greatest challenge for me. However, I had my very small UG support group and we often stayed up extremely late, sometimes even pulling all-nighters to ensure our assignments were completed even if it meant that we had to do it ourselves,” added Valencia.
Valencia also had financial difficulties, whilst at UG, however, she said that God always made a way for her.
“In my final year, UG reopened fully and university became even harder since I had to work all day then go home for classes in the afternoon and complete assignments. Whenever I became overwhelmed, I often said to myself that I’m almost at the finish line and it will be worth it in the end.”
She extends thanks to her mother, brothers, and my partner for being her support system. She noted, “They motivated me and kept me going. They were many times when I felt like giving up when things weren’t going my way but they were always there cheering for me.
My mother would always say to me that “the sky is the limit”.” In the future, she aspires to pursue a Masters Degree in Education and continue mounding the minds of Guyana’s youths. Her advice to the youths out there is “take your education. You can be anything you want to be. The future belongs to you. Anything you set your mind to achieve, you can and you will.”
