University beckons but youth unable to answer

BY PETRE WILLIAMS-RAYNOR

Career & Education editor

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com

ZELLMAR Daley is a youth chasing his dreams of higher education and a career in business, but his efforts may be stymied by his family’s poverty.

The 19-year-old resident of Old Harbour Bay was in April accepted to the University of West Indies, Mona, to read for a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Studies specialising in Accounting.

“To be frank, it is stressing. I want to go to university. I want after five years at least my name would have stood for something positive. Even in the community they have this saying that nothing good comes from Old Harbour Bay, only the fish. And that is all wrong. So I would like to change that, starting with myself and my community,” the Glenmuir High School past student told Career & Education.

“He is to go to university and I am unable to send him due to financial problems,” said his mother Valerie Fisher, 51.

“It is very rough. The father works but only now and then. He builds and repairs boats but sometimes the funds, he don’t get that work straight. It is on and off. Sometimes for all six months straight he doesn’t work,” she added of her common-law husband, who is the father of all her five children.

For herself, Fisher said she makes a living scraping fish at the seaside or otherwise selling ice to fishermen, neither of which puts her in a position to afford her son’s tuition.

The family was never wealthy to begin with, but their financial problems were made worse by the passage of Hurricane Dean in 2007, which left them without a home. Their three-bedroom plywood home that housed their family of seven was destroyed. Since then, Zellmar and his older brother, 24, have managed to construct a room, which they share. The others live under a roof made of tarpaulin.

However, despite the economic woes, Zellmar was able to pass all eight of his Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects, five of them with distinctions. They include: biology (2), history (1), English language (1), English literature (2), principles of accounts (1), principles of business (1), mathematics (1), and Spanish (3).

In the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), he earned a grade two (very good) in Caribbean studies and a grade three (good) in accounting, management of business and economics at level one. At level two of CAPE he earned a grade two in communication studies and accounting unit 1, and a grade three in management of business unit II and economics unit II.

“I feel good (about his grades), especially considering when he did his CXC, (for example), he did them under a tent because we were affected during the hurricane (Hurricane Dean) in 2007,” noted his mother.

All their efforts to raise money has so far come up short. Over the summer, Zellmar attempted to get work in Old Harbour, but without success.

“I wrote the banks, including NCB and Scotia Old Harbour branches, and the credit union (but I didn’t get any work),” he said, adding that he also wrote to a few of those institutions asking them for financial help, but to no avail.

He in fact, got no responses.

The youth also tried to get student’s loan, but without a guarantor was unable to apply.

“The guarantor was a problem. The guarantor had to put up an asset in terms of what they owned and that was a problem. They didn’t want to be a guarantor. It was too risky,” he told Career & Education. “The date, too, was a problem because while considering signing up for university, you have to consider signing up for student loan. I was applying late (and after the potential guarantor refused, there was not enough time to find another).”

“He even took up running to see if he would be able to get a scholarship (while he was still at Glenmuir) because he know that the funds would be a problem,” added his mother.

That never worked out because he got injured.

So far it is the help of others — including her children’s grandmothers and the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education — that has allowed Fisher and her common-law husband to get their children through school. They are counting on help again. And the hope is that once one member of the family makes it to university, they will be in a position to help the family.

“I like challenges; the fact that I will be able to go to university and read for a bachelor of science degree is a major challenge and if I eventually do it, I will be the first one in my family to jump the hurdle and get a tertiary level education,” said Zellmar.

“If I get the chance to go to university, I will make the best use of that opportunity and at the end of the three years I will be guaranteed a BSc degree because I will work very hard for it. And then I will start the change that will take my family out of poverty,” he added.

His mother, for her part, said she has had one child have to quit university because of a lack of funds. She does not want it to happen again, certainly not with Zellmar who she is convinced will make good use of a university education.

“My daughter (21-year-old Sharnette) started in 2008 and had to drop out because of the same thing. She only did one term… I don’t want that to happen to him (Zellmar),” she said.

Fisher is desperate to have her son in university.

“I would feel good ’cause even most times when I watch Profile and I see people on it, I always say ‘wow, I wish it was one of my children’,” she said.

The teen’s tuition amounts to $208,361, in addition to $11,370 in miscellaneous fees and $500 for the identification card. Up to two Fridays ago, the family had $7,000 in hand. Then last Friday, they got word the youth would get an additional $50,000 from the NCB Foundation. But it is not enough. Still, Daley said it was a good sign.

“It is a wonderful donation and I could not ask for a better start, considering the short notice,” the youth told Career & Education.

It was only a week ago that the teen wrote to the NCB Foundation requesting assistance.

Zellmar Daley cap:

Zellmar Daley, 19, has only $57,000 of the more than $220,000 required to pay his tuition. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Zellmar and certies cap:

Zellmar Daley shows off his Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate passes. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)

Zellmar and mum cap:

Zellmar Daley and his mother Valerie Fisher.