Alumni Spotlight When


School Values Meet Family Values


Kristen Ferreira ‘95 was the Guest Speaker at the 2011 BHS Prizegiving. Kristen’s family owns the Market Place group of stores and here she talks to Jennifer Burland Adams about life, work and BHS.


Kristen’s comedic timing was fresh in my mind when I sat down to chat with her shortly after she spoke as the guest speaker for the Secondary Prize Giving in November, 2011. Kristen and I have known each other for many years as both of us attended BHS in the 80s as Primary students. I wanted to chat to Kristen about what it felt like to be asked to speak at Prizegiving, her experiences at BHS and her interesting path to hocking lemons.


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Jennifer Burland Adams: What did you feel when Linda Parker (Head of School) asked you to be the Secondary Prizegiving Speaker? Kristen Ferreira: It was great to feel reconnected with the school and good for the kids to have the opportunity to hear from someone who has chosen a path in a local business and sees lots of brightness for the future ahead.


JBA: When did you leave BHS and how did it set you up for the future?


KF: I left at age 12, after P7 to attend the Cheltenham Ladies College which was very similar to BHS (see sidebar) except in size and weather! CLC had about 800 students and was just age 11-18, but it was an all-girls school and is the


14 Torchbearer Spring 2012


hen life gives you lemons, make lemonade… but if you don’t have any lemons, you can find them in aisle 9 for 59 cents.


model for how BHS was founded. BHS gave me an excellent foundation. I feel that we were given a lot of attention as individual students in the class as well as in a group. Teachers worked on your weaknesses but also pushed you to excel at your strengths. Our education was well-balanced because sports and extra-curricular activities were just as important as academics and fun was always incorporated into learning. Things like going to assembly, being on time, walking in single file and quietly are all things that brought order to life, so when I went to Cheltenham I had a structure to work within.


JBA: So, after CLC you went on to study law which both your parents had also studied. KF: Yes, I didn’t study law because I wanted to become a lawyer, but because I wanted to learn the subject. Also, I had taken an A-level in German and knew that I could study law in Germany for one year.


JBA: And then you and your mother were called to the Bermuda Bar together. KF: My mother and I were the first mother-daughter pair to be called to the Bermuda Bar on the same day and it really just happened that way, that we both moved back to Bermuda around the same time and started working and realised that we would be called up together.


JBA: So, you worked for XL as a lawyer when you moved back?


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