By Keisha McCammon
Michael Younge, at 19, is doing it all. This full-time reporter and second-year University of Guyana student, who overcame the death of his father less than a year ago in a minibus accident, entered the Guyana Model Search competition with the main aim of helping a friend and secretly living out a lifelong dream. He emerged as the male winner.
The former top student of North Ruimveldt Multilateral School was born at Mahaicony and brought up in Campbellville, Georgetown. Now living at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, Michael, the seventh of eight children, says he had always aspired to become a model.
He was best graduation students at North Ruimveldt Multilateral after he secured, at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, seven grade ones and three grade twos. He next attended Critchlow Labour College and the Venezuelan Institute, from where he earned a Diploma in Spanish. He is pursuing a Degree in Communications at UG.
Michael has also been working as a television reporter since leaving school four years ago. He is currently at VCT Channel 28 and it was while working in this capacity that he was given the assignment every reporter fears.
While trying to get comments at the Georgetown Public Hospital about persons involved in a minibus accident for his newscast, he heard his father’s name being called and turned to discover that his father was one of the victims. He broke down in tears and stayed with his father until he passed away later that same night. The accident occurred last July and involved a minibus heading from Georgetown to Linden.
Michael says his father would have wanted him to take part in the competition and to follow his dreams.
Of the 200 contestants who originally auditioned for a place in the competition, Michael made it into the top six with the likes of Dillon Bradford and Anthony Snow — two crowd favourites to steal the show. He says that he survived the numerous eliminations and came out the winner is all due to coincidence.
Michael tells The Scene that he had heard about the competition from a friend and although he always wanted to be a model, he never had any intention of taking part. He says he entered to accompany his best friend Kenwah Cho Quan Yi and to show his support for her. He says Kenwah also made the cut but did not make it into the top six.
Michael, still very excited about his win, recalls that when he first auditioned, he never expected to be selected, but surprised himself. Afterwards, however, his confident grew and he wanted to win and made it his mission to accomplish.
The competition, he says, has opened his eyes to new experiences as he participated in fun activities that he would never have done, such as the reality show.
On the day of the final, he says, he had a complete makeover and practiced tirelessly for the ‘Glamorous’ show. Michael was the first male model on stage and revealed that he was extremely nervous throughout. He says he was really shocked when it was announced that Bradford was the second runner-up as he had believed that he would have been his toughest competitor. But he was still not sure, as Snow seemed a likely winner.
He says he was a bundle of nerves and wanted to leave the stage. When the first runner-up was announced and he realised that he had won, he says, he could not decide whether to cry or laugh but did a little of both. “I started falling because it was all too exciting,” he says.
All his supporters including friends and family congratulated him. His mother, he says, flew into his arms on the stage and they both lost their footing and hit the stage but were too overcome with joy to worry.
After the show, Michael and Shanelly Kendall, the female winner briefly visited the Tunnel nightclub and then he went home to complete an assignment due the next day at university.
He won for himself a Motorola Krzr cellular phone along with other accessories from Digicel, one of the sponsors of the show; a trophy; a Shabeau magazine photo shoot, gifts from Sasha Cosmetics, jewellery, cash, and a trip to Kaieteur Falls among other prizes. He is grateful to the organiser of the competition Sonia Noel, Shabeau Magazine’s Kofi Branch, model trainer Richard Young, his best friend, mother Maylene Younge and Quincy Williams.
He encourages other young men to, like the US army reserve motto ,“be all you can be”, and also to “be yourself, free yourself, feel yourself, and get lost in your dreams”. He adds that this is the only way for them to achieve their destiny.
The Guyana Model Search contest began last December. Prospective models from across the country auditioned for a role in the competition. Every week someone was eliminated, eventually leaving the final six contestants — three males and three females. Younge, Snow, Bradford along with Shanelly Kendall the female winner, Ayanna Harris and Jenel Cox. There was a twist in the competition and none of the participants were aware that they were being judged all the time. The male and female winners are now eligible for the Caribbean competition.
