I was born in Jamaica. I grew up in St. Thomas, a place not many opportunities are given to youths. All my siblings and I worked hard and were known as hardworking students. I held my head high and did my best. I had the opportunity to at 19 years old to serve as a volunteer missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where I learned another language in a foreign country. Because of the blessings of hardworking people, I was financially supported and fulfilled my 18 months service and returned to Jamaica. At age 21, I decided to start my bachelor's degree path. It's a later start than most people think, but I started. It was never easy. I was twice denied a visa to study in the United States. I worked harder for an entire year by working full time and taking classes online. At the end of a year, I decided to try again and this time I had the support of kind and generous people who wanted to see me succeed and help me gain an education. Being away from family is difficult, but I reminded myself that a West Indian woman doesn't give up on her dreams. She is persistent. The year 2023 finds me counting down the months until I graduate. Unbelievable that as I do so, I will be the means of supporting the past generation and the next generation to come. I continue to pursue school and worked and for to maintain my GPA of 3.594. I never bit the hands that fed me and here I am to today.

Adversity is the thief of all joy. If you have ever wondered how starving children in Africa feel, then I would that would be the most precise vision of adversity, because it is perpetual. While facing financial hardship is the number one cause of nightmares, it is possible to move from grace to grace without loss of enthusiasm. As a college student, I have had to work and lose sleep to draw closer each semester with my degree in mind, in hand, someday. I cut back, I thrift, I do without, and I learn resilience. I capture gratitude and magnify the ground of opportunities on which I am placed. Whoever said life is easy clearly never existed. It is simply impossible. Originating from a diverse background in a different land is a call for concern among many. I overcome homesickness, and culture shock, and adjusted to a climate that moves me from the tropics to one of the coldest places. I have a determined mind and a heart of gold knowing that one day I will be the door of opportunity for many college students. My name will be known as a giver of good gifts, a hero, a mother figure, and a kind woman because I have been given much from many. I am a believer in hard work. I have had to subsist day to day on little to know food. I have had to watch my family suffer a little until I can work to support their needs. I am ready and willing to make today a change for at least a community so that others too may be able to rise to the occasion and become their best selves. I am a teacher. That is my superpower. I study to learn about people and their backgrounds and I work to help them discover themselves. I am the first to attend college in my family and finally and the first who has gotten the closest to completing it. My burning desire is to make a change to the education system and all students a reason to live to prepare for tomorrow. Life is not a nightmare, they should know, but rather a dream to pursue. Oh, the wisdom of the rising generation! I was born to pursue the objective, not the obstacle. I overcome adversity through patience, longsuffering, a persevering mind, and a willing heart and I have already begun.

To experience is to know. Putting food on the table in college is a luxury that comes only from grit. I grew up in a low-income household with a door that led me to achieve my dreams in the US. With unwavering determination and a strong-willed mind, I work from before the break of the day to very late nights studying no less than 13 credits per semester, a part-time job, and several voluntary service jobs that crave my time and attention. I grew from an essential worker to a student leader and before I knew it I'm training people to follow my steps to success. My efforts as a succeeding student teach me that molding and growing can come no other way, except through the most challenging of times. When I work from 4:30 am until the shift ends, Monday - Saturday, I do not go back to bed when it's over. I head straight to a full day of class and other activities until night falls. I meet with classmates to complete team assignments, I study, I extend help to other students, I complete homework, and most of all I make sure that I complete the most important plans on my list for the day. Friends ask me how I do it, but my greatest tool has been commitment and the use of a planner. It pays well when a goal is set and achieved. Food cannot come from an empty shelf. Who will I become for the students who will look up to me? With what will I support the ones who will struggle with metacognitive skills? My college years will teach me a great deal more than my career. It will teach me character development as an efficient use of time.