Published:
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Melissa Pascal, a student at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business (UWI-ALJGSB), has been selected to attend the One Young World Summit which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 18 to 21 2015, a release said.
The 29-year-old baker, entrepreneur and philanthropist who is currently completing an International Masters in Business Development and Innovation (IMBDI) was chosen from among thousands of applications from around the world and will join 1,300 other young leaders from 194 countries at the event.
The One Young World is a global forum which brings together young leaders aged 18 to 30 who have demonstrated leadership ability and a commitment to effecting positive change in their home countries on a range of issues, including business, social, environmental, and human rights. Pascal got the selectors’ nod after submitting her concept for the expansion of a development programme for young girls and women run by her family-owned company, Pascal’s Bakery and Deli, as part of the application process.
The young philanthropist explained, “The head office of ‘ Bakery is located along the Eastern Main Road in Laventille and employs just under 80 women from lower-income households within the area. Most of our workers come from Laventille, Morvant and Sea Lots and entered our programme with no prior skills. We employ these women, teach them the skill of baking and thus provide them with a means to support themselves and their families.”
The women work at the Bakery’s 12 outlets along the east-west corridor, as well as in Diego Martin and Port-of-Spain. Pascal enjoys working with young girls and women and is heavily involved in the Bakery’s corporate social responsibility programme which is the company’s way of giving back and making a difference within the communities that they sell in. Pascal intends to expand the programme to other areas around T&T.
Pascal is very excited at the opportunity because she will have the opportunity to listen to and meet with global game-changers from Fortune 500 companies, NGO’s, universities and other forward-thinking organisations. Past summits featured renowned people like Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof, Kofi Annan, Sir Richard Branson, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Jamie Oliver, Jack Dorsey and Arianna Huffington.
Pascal has to raise the funds to cover the travel and accommodation costs of the youth summit but explained why she decided to apply to attend the conference, “ feel compelled to make a difference and this is the sole reason for going to the Thailand conference since the aim of the global youth summit is for us to return empowered with innovative solutions for the pressing issues our countries face and we must make a commitment to work on our own independent social and environmental initiatives which must be delivered within the next year.”
Pascal gives credit to the information learned from her IMBDI classes, as well as the support given to her by UWI-ALJGSB’s Commercial Business Incubator Programme which provides innovative start-ups and existing companies with a wide range of financial and non-financial services to nurture these companies and increase their long-term viability. Pascal noted that the coaching and support that the BizBooster Unit provided proved to be invaluable and helped her hone her business plan for the expanded version of Pascal’s female development programme.
Pascal said, “I was introduced to the IMBDI by Candace Brathwaite, manager of the BizBooster Programme at Arthur Lok Jack and she has also provided me with excellent advice for our business, Pascal’s Bakery and Deli. My business ideas for Pascal’s Bakery, plus the other companies I started, definitely grew out of the information that I was exposed to as a student at Arthur Lok Jack. My experience here at Arthur Lok Jack has certainly been a great one which has positively influenced not just my career but my personal life.”
Brathwaite extended congratulations to Pascal and said, “Our Commercial Business Incubator programme provides assistance to local companies and start-ups which show the potential to contribute to the T&T economy, especially via the creation of jobs and Melissa has shown that through the Bakery’s programme, she is able to do this. I am happy to hear that Melissa was selected to attend the One Young World Summit because she has demonstrated through her past actions that she is a leader who is willing to put in the time and effort to achieve success in whatever she does. We will continue to support Melissa however we can and we look forward to hearing more about her future work with young girls and women and the positive impact it is having not only in their lives but toward the development of our country.”
Pascal already holds a BSc in Economics from the York University in Toronto, Canada and has a strong entrepreneurship spirit. By the age of 26 she had already owned three businesses including a handbag and jewelry company with her mother. The young entrepreneur is not a newcomer to philanthropic work and has been doing volunteer projects since her high schools days at Holy Name Convent in Port-of-Spain where she was vice head girl.
Since leaving high school, Pascal has also been doing public speaking in her spare time including representing her family’s Bakery at an annual summer camp run by Luventille—a Laventille-based NGO which works with young girls from forms three to six living within the area. Holy Name’s annual career week for third formers, delivered the keynote address at the St Stephen’s College Sixth Form Graduation and was a featured speaker at a 2014 Arthur Lok Jack workshop Entrepreneurship For SMEs: The Role Of The Family.
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Individuals or companies wishing to assist Pascal with her expenses to attend the One Young World Summit in Thailand can contact her at pascal.melissa@gmail.com, visit her facebook page at www.facebook.com/Melissa.Pascal.Official or Web site at http://melissapascal.co/.
Online donations can also be done at life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/send-melissa-to-thailand-for-one-young-world.
lifestyle
Melissa Pascal’s interest in philantrophy started when she was a student at Holy Name Convent.