Alumni Testimonial: Odell Gbehngeh Plans to Succeed With Her Business
On October 10, 2024, Heather Cannon—Co-Founder and Executive Director—met Odell Gbehngeh, who graduated from our catering course in 2023. She started halfway through the 2021/2022 cohort but stayed with the next group for the full year.
Left to right: Odell Gbehngeh and Heather Cannon.
She considered another school before she enrolled at UDS. What changed her mind? Our plumbing instructor recommended our school. Since graduating, she started a micro-business selling meat/fish pies and pastries.
Odell is a college student at United Methodist University focused on accounting and business management. She plans to graduate in 2025 or 2026. She also has a grand vision of starting her own business. She has her name, business plan completed, and Facebook Business page drafted. She plans to enroll in the UDS computer course starting in a month. She will launch her business after college graduation because she will track her business track inventory, sales, revenue, etc. with her computer skills and accounting and business management knowledge. We look forward to seeing her succeed.
In Part 1 of 4, the interview started with Odell introducing herself and what she has been doing since graduation.
In Part 2 of 2, Odell shared why young people should learn a trade and recommended Uniting Distant Stars Vocational Training Center.
Next, Heather asked Odell for feedback on what she liked or loved about UDS. She provided the following:
What she likes:
The quality of our instructors... shout out to Frank Tugbeh, catering instructor!
Our attractive compound…shout out to Kelvin Fomba, UDS Co-Founder and director in Liberia, and his team!
Loves everything else such as location, easy-to-learn, interactions among students and staff, and more.
What we could do better:
Advance and modernize our training materials such as microwaves, ice cream makers, etc.
Get more computers and expand that course.
Make our plumbing program more attractive to recruit more students
Left to right: Odell Gbehngeh and Heather Cannon.
We welcome Odell’s feedback and agree with advancing and modernizing our training. Next year, we will launch a Steller Course Sponsor. This program allows individuals and entities to sponsor a course with financial or in-kind donations for learning materials. We created a tiered incentive plan that increases with the amount given.