A passion for teaching

Lisa de Mercado and her 7 year old son Dominic 

Ms de Mercado (left) with Tiny Tots Academy
students at KFC 

Ms de Mercado (right) with former co-worker and
students 

Ms de Mercado with her brother Mark, owner of
Superior Auto here in Cayman

 
Ms de Mercado is flanked by her Mom (left) and two
sisters

Wednesday,  December 14, 2005

When Lisa de Mercado was eight years old and took her turn selling in her parents’ shop – a building attached to her home in the very cool hills of Above Rocks, Jamaica – she wanted to make sure she returned the correct change to customers.

Her primary aim was to make her parents as proud of her as they were of her four sisters and four brothers – six of whom were older than she was.

So, before she handed over change to customers, she would quickly squat under the shop counter, slap her chest and count her fingers to check her calculations – the way little children do for adding and subtracting.

Now, many years later, Ms de Mercado has a track record of teaching eight-year-olds and other age group school children here in the Cayman Islands.

Teaching was a definite choice for a profession for Ms de Mercado because her teachers at her High School in Jamaica – Holy Childhood – impressed her so much.

And Cayman seemed written in the stars for her. Some of her older brothers and sisters had journeyed here while she was still very young and still in school in Jamaica, and made the Islands their home.

In addition, during the two years she spent as a flight attendant with her country’s national carrier, Grand Cayman was one of her frequent destinations.

Today, as a teacher at St. Ignatius School, Ms de Mercado says that switching snazzy hostess suits and aeroplane cabins, for comfort gear and schoolrooms, was the happiest trade of her life.

A Spanish teacher, Ms de Mercado spoke about the many things that could have pushed her along career paths, other than teaching. But she said, “Teaching was my real passion and I am lucky to have been able to realise that early.”

Becoming an entrepreneur like her parents – Carmen and Rudolph de Mercado, now seventy and sixty-seven years old, respectively – was definitely one option.

“My parents are still alive and well. They taught all of us to work very hard for what we want. Coming from a large family I have very happy childhood memories. However, there was, at the same time, a huge amount of discipline for small to big things. For example, my father insisted that by 5 o’clock every evening we were all to be showered.

“We had a bustling home life because my parents had the shop, and a bakery, attached to our home. They made pastry and patties and would supply the school in my district with lunches,” Ms de Mercado revealed.

She proudly showed the book entitled “Taste of Grace” – published with Cayman and Caribbean recipes – in which her family’s recipe for making patties is included.

Another option for Ms de Mercado was becoming a singer. This was a significant option in fact – one that once had her performing at a very young age with famous Jamaican singer, Carlene Davis, in one of her shows in Cayman. This happened some years before Ms de Mercado actually relocated to Cayman.

“My mother used to play the organ in church and Mark, one of my brothers, played the guitar. Sometimes we all would gather around and sing.

“When I was in High School my favourite subjects were Spanish and History. But at the same time I loved to sing.

“I was discovered, so to speak, at a national level when I won the Teen Star Search competition for my High School.

“That win opened a lot of doors for me. I received many singing engagements around the island. I was a guest star on Carlene Davis’ show here in Cayman when I was only seventeen years old. That was the first time I came to Cayman.”

Explaining that the field of banking was another possibility, Ms de Mercado said, “In the summer after High School I was invited to take up a post at Workers’ Bank in Jamaica. At the end of summer they wanted me to stay on. But I remembered my desire to be a teacher and so I enrolled and studied for three years at Mico Teachers’ College.”

Explaining how much teaching seemed to be “in the cards” for her Ms de Mercado revealed that she never applied for her first job as a teacher. She explained how she was handpicked by the Assistant Principal of Wolmer’s High – one of the most prestigious Jamaican Schools.

Ms de Mercado said, “During Practice Teaching phase of my time at Mico, Mrs Pinnock of Wolmer’s was my examiner. One day she took me outside to discuss my grade and she used that opportunity to say that she wanted me to teach Spanish at Wolmer’s.”

Upon graduation from Mico Ms de Mercado was the recipient of the 1995 Neveast Award for teaching Spanish.

Even though she went to Wolmer’s after graduation her time there was short-lived. It was during that summer that yet another career option opened up for her.

“At that point I got an invitation from Air Jamaica to take up a post as a flight attendant. However, after about two years flying the classroom was calling again and I felt I wanted to move on from the airline and do something more intellectual with my life. Plus I really missed the children.

“Right around that time my brothers and sisters who were already living in Cayman told me of an opening here for a teacher. On my reserve day at the airline I flew over here for an interview with Tiny Tots Academy and was successful.

“I spent two years at Tiny Tots. Even though Spanish was not on their curriculum I enjoyed exposing the young ones to the language from time to time.

“After that I spent six years at Grace Christian Academy in West Bay. There, I was hired to teach Spanish. During that time I also taught Spanish at ICCI at nights.

“It was also during that time that I began doing my Bachelor’s degree in Education at ICCI. At the appropriate time during that course I transferred my credits to be able to begin and complete the Masters in Education there.

“Hurricane Ivan aborted my tenure at Grace. It was while I continued teaching at ICCI in the evenings after Ivan that someone told the Principal of St Ignatius about me. So, by 1 November 2004, I took up this assignment.

“At St Ignatius I teach only Spanish to students from grades nine to thirteen. I am also Head of the Spanish Department.”

Upon her graduation from ICCI in 2002 Ms de Mercado was the recipient of the James M Bodden Snr. Memorial Award for volunteerism. 

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