By Moses Nosike

Models on the Island Season 11 is a Reality TV show that promotes skills, talent discovery and development among the youth especially those passionate in entertainment, all for job creation and self-reliance. Umesi Nonye Christine aka Krystal Krys, winner of the Models on the Island Season 11 is a Human Resources Manager and a model before the competition, and also one of the young Nigerians passionate in acting.

After her victory, Christine who is from Abia state, told newsmen that she saw the flyer on social media and applied for the competition, and she was contacted to become one of contestants.

Discussing her experience, Christine said, “The show lasted 20 days and my experience was a very wonderful and amazing one. At some point, it was hectic staying in the house with 20 other contestants that you don’t really know their background. But I am grateful for the experience. At least I have learnt to stay with different kinds of people with different behaviours. I also learnt to tolerate people”.

According to her, “It was easy for me because I am a people’s person and my career as a Human Resources Manager also helped me because I usually meet and work with people and dealing with certain behaviour from people. There were some behaviours that I couldn’t condone and I had one or two outburst with some contestants but it was quite easy for me to blend in”.

On what stood her out as a winner, she said, “I don’t know if I stood out during the competition but I would say that my boldness was one of them. My talents also made me stand out. I tried my best during the tasks, did my best that ensured that I performed well. Again, the voting was also one of them that made people stay in the house and it made me stand out. At this juncture, I can say that competition was a good one and one of the things that I learnt was improving my acting skills. I learnt a whole lot more about acting. I learnt how to stand in the crowd and the house helped me do it flawlessly. My modeling skills also helped me during some of the tasks in the house especially during the cat walking session.

“The camp director really helped us in our acting skills and we got to know that it takes a whole lot more about acting especially the crew that works behind a very good movie. As an actor, you need to work with everybody, you need to be cheerful and friendly on set else you won’t get jobs. You need to be able to network with people and always be punctual. He drilled the contestants on all aspects of acting. One of the prizes that I won in the competition include a movie project”.

Camp manager, Dr Victory Emuejekarohidu said, “Models on the Island Season 11 is a successful Reality TV Show and it is putting the youths on the limelight and moulding them. It is not all about the winning but what you can do after winning the competition because during the process of coming into the house, I saw a lot of the contestants looking so crude. There is a difference between modeling and cat walking and after much training, those that couldn’t cat walk initially started cat walking like models. Which means that they have learnt so much”.

“Christine who won the competition, from afar off, I saw her taking instructions and I do tell them that they should be focused in whatever they are doing. Some of them that were actually focused, it took time before they were evicted. Also coupled with their own fans that were voting for them. I tell those that have been evicted and are looking for other opportunities to participate in subsequent editions, I tell them that they should know that it is not just winning the competition but the things they will learn after the show. It is not just the programme but it is the empowerment that they got during their stay in the house that they will use in future.