Beneath the pale moonlight of 21st January 1994, a prayer was answered and a healthy baby girl was introduced to the world. Raynel Carroll was raised in a single-parent household that offered unending love and support.
With a solid base, Raynel thrived, eventually graduating from the All Saints Secondary School and the Antigua and Barbuda Hospitality Training Institute. Raynel is very driven, which she demonstrated as she embraced dance at a tender age and is presently a member of the DUST (Dance Unifying Souls Together) Dance Company as well as a former dancer with Antigua’s carnival baby, Tizzy and the El A Kru Band.
Raynel’s impressive resume includes stints with the Antigua Dance Academy, the Sunny Dale Dancers and the Elite Dancers – with whom she was awarded most outstanding dancer for 2010/2011. She has varied interests to include socializing, involvement in her community, being a service ambassador and, not surprisingly, beauty pageants. Volunteerism is her first love. Raynel is an ambassador for the Innocence Project started and the Aids Secretariat ‘If you love me protect me campaign’.
Her fondness for pageants emerged when she entered and won the All Saints Secondary School’s Black History Month Pageant. That led her to participate in Teen Splash, her first foray on the carnival stage.
Subsequently, Raynel was adjudged the second runner-up in the 2011 Homecoming Queen Pageant. Noteworthy, she is the 2013 Labour Queen. With pageantry in her blood she went on to win the 2013 Ms. Antigua Queen of Carnival title, first runner up in the JCI Caribbean Queen show 2013 and most recently second runner up in the Miss PJD2 Caribbean Queen Pageant.
Never wanting to rest on her laurels, Raynel plans to further her studies in the hospitality industry with a focus on Tourism Management. The 20-year-old is determined to make her mark through a position that will offer policy direction to Antigua and Barbuda’s Tourism product. Raynel is presently working with the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority where she gets the opportunity to market her beautiful country. This she hopes will set the stage for her career in this field.