Hi, my name is Antonnette Smith and this is a hard one for me. I’ve been asked to tell my life story in a minute and I’m a bit of a talker but I am a daughter of two immigrant parents; they came from Jamaica in the 70’s. They moved to Scarborough where you’d find a lot of Jamaicans and the entire time that I was growing up my mother always instilled in me the importance of education. She said no matter what you go through, no matter what happens to you, if you’re educated nobody can take that away from you. So, I decided to educate myself. I went to obviously elementary school cause that’s required and then after that I went to high school, and after high school there was no question in my mind that I would go to university – I had absolutely no money but I got some loans – thank God for OSAP (my best friend) – and then after I did my undergraduate, I said you know what, I’m going to get a Master’s Degree and I’m so glad that I did. I am the first person in my entire family to have a Master’s Degree and it feels so good. I remember when I got it and I told my entire family, nobody believed me. One person actually said to me, “Wow, look at you and all that fancy education you have!” That one kind of stung a bit but you know what, even though it was a bit of a jab she was still proud of me and here I am now. I’m a producer at the CBC and I think all that fancy education has definitely paid off.
