Sophia Sterling, who was a student of the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre, is now one of the centre's supervisors. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
REALISING THE self-esteem and self-reliance skills that she was gaining at the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre, Sophia Sterling often walked about two and a half miles from Waterhouse to the centre located off Hagley Park Road when she couldn't afford bus fare.
"The centre can take one from rags to riches. It builds self-esteem, teaching one not to depend on anyone but self."
Miss Sterling, now a mother of an eight year-old boy and a 13 year-old girl, is supervisor at the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Training Centre. As supervisor she assists in all areas, catering, cosmetology, bakery production, of the daily classes. Sometimes she's in the kitchen preparing lunch for the girls.
Miss Sterling reminisced about the good times she had at the centre during her student years. "As students we were very close. If anything was wrong (at home), we talk to each other or Mrs. Richards. Though the centre only had one bed, we all slept on it when we wanted a rest during school, and sometimes we moved it to one side of the room to make space for an exercise class," says Miss Sterling.
In September 1994 Miss Sterling took a friend who was pregnant at age 12 to the Woman's Centre, off Trafalgar Road in St. Andrew. While assisting her friend to register she heard about the Myrtle Ferguson Skills Centre. Having had a daughter two years before at age 19, she enrolled at the Myrtle Ferguson Centre. A year after graduating in 1995 Miss Sterling began working there in September 1996.
"I had great times at the centre, it's a home away from home. Here there's a lot of laughter. Plus, now I have friends who are more than sisters," she says. After graduating, Miss Sterling worked at Lorraine Beauty Salon in Pembroke Hall, St. Andrew and when the owner emigrated - having no job - she was offered a post at the centre.
- Shelly-Ann Thompson
