UB Lecturer Ritamae Hyde is the first Belizean be selected for the UNESCO Young Professionals Programme. It gives her the opportunity to work with UNESCO in France as an International civil servant.
It's a major step for her, and a major distinction as many international persons with master's degrees under the age of 30 competed for the job.
She told us about her path to this major international gig:..
Ritamae Hyde, Winner, UNESCO's Young Professional Award
"I applied in February, I submitted my application. They asked for certain things including a specialized degree in any of the sectors of UNESCO, so I applied to culture sector I have a Masters in heritage studies as well as experience working with the National Institute of Culture and History as you are aware I worked with the National Institute of Culture and History for 7 years. Apart from that I have been involved in the arts, I am a person of the arts I often like to say, and so this has been my profession. It has been what I do in my personal life and so naturally I was interested in working at UNESCO."
Jules Vasquez
"For a young person seeing this, I think it is inconceivable that you grow up right around here, but you are now going to be an international public servant working at UNESCO, the first Belizean to enter this particular program."
Ritamae Hyde, Winner, UNESCO's Young Professional Award
"I feel blessed and honored to have the opportunity. I know that Belizeans are capable of many things. I think that sometimes in life people short change themselves, they believe we are not able to do this and we are not able to do that. From a young age I learned to dream and to be bold in my dreams, yes you are very correct I grow up not too far from here Southside Belize is as it's often called and there is certain negative connotations that comes with being from this area, but I have learned from then that you need dreams, you need dreams to set a stage to for what you want to achieve in the future and so what I did was I dreamt and I dreamt big and I thought well I can do it and there is nothing that can stop me from doing what I need to do, and ultimately I believe this, I believe that people have the capacity for greatness and so I've never limited myself in anything that I have done."
Ritamae leaves for Paris, France tomorrow.
She will begin a one-year probationary period of training, after which she will become a permanent member of the Culture Sector staff in the Secretariat of UNESCO in France.
Email
Print