Yolander Parker, the Girl Who Can!

She came in as an intern in the TV3 newsroom, and soon she was running here and there, filing impactful stories for the business desk. From stories on the 2020 elections to COVID-19, among others, Yolander Parker put in a lot of effort, and some of us in the newsroom noticed her hard work.

“I joined the team in 2019,” Ms Parker tells me. It was not long after she joined the newsroom that she was made to assist the Business Desk. Yolander Parker’s stories were so relevant that if it hadn’t been for the tag “intern” next to her name, no one would have guessed she wasn’t a paid staff member.

In the buildup to the 2020 elections, I was assigned the responsibility of coordinating the affairs of a number of volunteers who had signed up to assist the newsroom in collating results for the polls. Here, Ms Parker worked under me, and she was a great help. When the calls and hundreds of messages came to me from these volunteers and I felt overwhelmed, she would take the phone from me to reply to the messages and call back those who demanded to know this or that.

“It’s my birthday and I ask God to order my steps. May His favour shine upon me as I journey through life,” the woman who now works as dispatch supervisor with Apex Courier Services told me in a WhatsApp chat.

Ms Parker, I have no doubt you succeeding in your current job. You are an industrious woman and I pray for the best for you on your special day. Continue to shine bright like diamonds.