Special guest speaker Ms. Jenny Witterick visited the Upper School on Wednesday, March 27, to discuss her career path in the field of finance and her new journey as an author. As a child, Ms. Witterick and her family immigrated to Canada from Taiwan. Despite financial problems, she used motivation and perseverance to get herself a scholarship to attend university. Although one of her teachers encouraged her to become a writer, she felt that finance was a more sustainable source of income and became a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

Today, she has more than 17 years of experience as an investment analyst managing international equities and is owner of Sky Investment Counsel Inc., a successful investment company. After attaining her professional goals, she decided it was time to try a new challenge and go into writing.

Ms. Witterick recently completed her first novel, My Mother’s Secret, based on a true Holocaust story. She fell in love with the story of a woman who risked everything to hide people during the Holocaust and she wanted to share this story with the world. “Some people think it’s interesting that a Chinese person wrote a book about the Holocaust, but I think what is most important in writing is that your characters feel real, and I’ve used my life experiences to make my characters genuine,” she says of her novel.

Despite rejection from publishing companies, Ms. Witterick published her novel independently and is using word of mouth as publicity. Still in its early days, it is receiving rave reviews from readers!

At the end of her presentation, Ms. Witterick noted to students that she feels the most satisfaction during the process of attaining her goals, which keeps her motivated to continue seeking out new and diverse things.

Havergal thanks the new author for taking the time to talk to our students and inspire them to achieve their goals. We wish her all the best in her new adventures!