"It's wonderful, I feel honoured to be a finalist," said Juanita Wade, who has been an English teacher at Alleyne School in St Andrew for the past 21 years.
Wade keeps it simple.
In the late 1970s and early '80s she was with the Girl Guides, then she moved on to what she thought was more challenging andjoined the cadets.
In the late 1980s she returned to the Guides and is now District Commissioner for the Girl Guides.
"I think it makes a tremendous impact on the young girls to be part of the Guides. It's wonderful. It helps them throughout their school life and even afterwards. It helps with their confidence, helps them to know how to adhere to laws, and helps them to be aware to be generally kind to others," she said.
Concurrently, she's a Big Sister, a programme designed for girls at Alleyne School, and the advisor of the Key Club.
"The Key Club is like the Guides. We go to elders' homes and keep their company, help keep up a bit around their house and read to them. We also go to the St Andrew Children's Hostel . . . and so on," she said.
She is also the union representative at Alleyne, and is now writing her thesis while working on her Master's in Education at the University of the West indies.
With all that, Wade finds time to teach English to all grades in her school and holds the title as a senior teacher and a house (athletics) mistress.
"This is always what I wanted to do. I enjoy it. I started from when I was 18-years-old and I expect that I will teach right up to I retire," she said with a giggle.
But what she values the most as a teacher is her influence on her students, specificallythe girls.
"I feel one of the things I have really achieved being here is mentoring and monitoring them and following their path, even after they have left the school or even when they follow-up on me.
"I find that the young women are going out there and making a contribution and when I see them appear in the newspaper doing this or that, it makes me proud that I had some small part to play in what they have become or some influence on that person's life," Wade proudly stated.
Having a young daughter herself, her work with the girls in and out of the classroom seems almost personal and familial.
"I think the girls used to see me as a big sister figure but over the years, they see me as a mother figure, a surrogate mother. And that makes a big difference because there are so many of them. I see quality in that and it makes me proud to make such a difference."
The awards, first held in 2003, are sponsored by T
The event begins at 7 p.m. at Hilton Barbados.