QUEENS AMBASSADOR AWARDS
Loycent Gordon
Firefi ghter keeps historic tavern alive and well
At 10 years old, Loycent
emigrated from Jamaica and
final ly reunited with
his mom in the United
St ates. On Loycent ’s
f irst day of 4th grade
he was asked during
at tendance to spel l
his unique name.
Everyone learned
he was i l l iterate.
But two years
later, a community
of school staff and
his parents ral lied
together to help. He
wound up graduat ing
on schedule with honors.
Loycent eventual ly went
on to earn a Bachelor’s degree
from Hunter Col lege. This was
Loycent ’s first lesson of the
power of a community.
Want ing to give back to
a Queens community that
helped him, he jumped in to
save one of the most hi storical
local businesses in America,
although he had no restaurant
experience at the time. This
was Hi storic Neirs Tavern that
is now going into its 19 0th
year.L
oycent also serves
the cit izens of New
York City for the past
13 years becoming
one of the first
A f r ic a n-Ame r ic a n
HAZMAT Fire
Off icers i n t he FDNY
Special Operat ions
Division.
Loycent ’s passion
has centered on serving
the NYC community
through the FDNY and
helping to bui ld sustainable
customer communities for local
business owners to thrive in a
challenging marketplace.
Loycent l ives in St. Albans
with his loving wife, Aisha,
and his 3-year-old son, Evan.
He enjoys powered paragliding,
reading, and pract icing
acoust ic guitar in his spare
t ime.
Cloyette Harris-Stoute
Letting Queens know ‘Guyanese Girls Rock!’
Cloyette Harris-Stoute is a strong
believer that girls need great role
models from whom they can
draw inspiration, so in
2012 she created www.
guyanesegirlsrock.com, an
online platform to highlight
the accomplishments of
Guyanese women and
girls across the globe.
Guyanese Girls
Rock! has evolved into
a global movement to
recognize, honor, connect
and celebrate Guyanese
women and girls who are
demonstrated leaders and
accomplished achievers in the
Diaspora.
A proud native of Guyana, Cloyette
emigrated to the USA more than two
decades ago. Her desire to transform
the world through service led her to
establish Guyanese Girls Foundation,
Inc; a 501©3 non-profit organization.
In January 2018, she launched the
Young Women Leadership Academy, a
Saturday program held at the Queens
Central Library for high school girls
who are of Guyanese heritage. As
President of the Foundation, Cloyette
oversees the administration,
programs and strategic plans
of the organization which
offers mentoring, personal
development workshops
and scholarships.
C l o y e t t e ’ s
commitment to the
Guyanese community
has earned her a 2014
Guyana Cultural
Association Award for
outstanding contribution,
and special recognition
in 2016 from the Guyana
American Heritage Foundation
Inc., and the Guyana Action
Network for her invaluable service to
Guyanese in the diaspora.
In 2017, she received the Caribbean
Business Connections (CBC) Women
of Power Award, the Miss Caricom
International “Danny Glover Power
of Dream” Award and the Golden
Arrowhead Award of Achievement and
Distinction from the Guyana Tri-State
Alliance, Inc.
Cheri Jou
Real estate guru made it big in borough
Born in Taiwan and now residing in
Flushing,, Cheri C. Jou started out as a
teenage model before she embarked on
her career by working in one of the
largest Japanese firms named
The Kanematsu Gosho Ltd.
Company for eight years.
Cheri looked to broaden
her potential and formed
her own national trading
company called Concord
International in Taiwan
and with principles
that she implemented
it continues to be a very
profitable business today.
Cheri and her family
immigrated to the United
States in 1982 and settled in New
York. With her entrepreneurial
spirit, in 1986, she began her second
career in Real Estate. In 1993, she
was awarded the Top Sales Agent on
Investment Properties in NYC by her
peers at Century 21 Best Inc.
Cheri’s goals to assist her community
became apparent by forming alliances
with leaders and mentors creating
Corporation Playbook Inc. in 1990 that
delivers instructions and behavior
reinforcement via the internet to
individuals and businesses, a year
later in 1991 with mentors like Dr.
Hsing-Lih Chou and Rev. Daniel
P. David they founded the
New Vision Youth Services,
a non-profit organization
that provides counseling
to troubled teenagers
of Chinese and Korean
descent.
Along with all her
many activities and
interests, Cheri is first
and foremost a socially
conscious woman
wishing to contribute
her skills including her
f luency in Chinese, Taiwanese,
Japanese, and English by being a
translator in many court cases
that involved her community.
With her knowledge of dif ferent
cultures she is able to provide a
wide variety of services to the
socially underserved children,
minorities and women in her
community.
Cathy Hung
Bringing incredible art and culture to Jamaica
Cathy Hung serves as executive
director for the Jamaica Center for
Arts & Learning (JCAL), a role she
assumed in March 2014. She became
the first Taiwanese Woman to
lead a prominent cultural
institution and the first
Asian woman to lead a
member organization of
the Cultural Institutions
Group (CIG) in New York
City.
Hung has a track
record of turning around
financially challenged
institutions and has
successfully re-imaged
organizational identity by
creating innovative and highprofile
programs. She is a creative
producer with cross spectrum projects
in jazz, classical music, theater, and
exhibitions.
In her career, Hung has developed
many innovative partnerships with
cultural institutions locally and
internationally.
Formerly the Executive Director
for the New York Chinese Cultural
Center (NYCCC), Hung strengthened
its organizational structure and board
leadership; increased Government
and corporate funding by creating
new programs; and, enhanced
organizational profile
through innovative
programming.
She produced the
city-wide Lunar New
Year Celebration at the
Winter Garden in 2010
and tour the Lunar
New Year Celebration
in five boroughs
the following year in
five major museums,
that partnership is still
active today.
In her role as Executive Director
at JCAL, she oversees two city-owned
landmark buildings, including 45,000
sq feet headquarters with multiple
music rooms, dance studios, two
professional art galleries, a 99-seat
proscenium theater, and a 15,000 sq
feet, 400-seats state-of-the-art, multifunctional
Jamaica Performing Arts
Center.
QNS.COM TIMESLEDGER, JUNE 7-13, 2019 23
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