MELLISA Ramsay struggled through every day of high school with one goal in mind — to pass as many subjects as she could.

Those passes were to be her ticket out of the poverty which characterised her life as a resident of Rose Town.

And while there were many days when she didn’t have lunch, she was determined that neither hunger nor sporadic gang rivalry between her community and others would discourage her.

She graduated in 2009 with passes in eight Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects and two National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCT/VET) courses.

“My main aim was to get the subjects to get out because that’s what you hear in the inner city. Education is the key and the more subjects you had, the better it would be for you. That’s why I actually wanted to do so many subjects because I thought if I had more subjects, it would be better for me to get a work because I really wanted to get myself out of that poverty,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

With no father to speak of, Ramsay was raised by her mother in a house they shared with her extended family. Her mother, a cook at the time, was too financially unstable to effectively provide for her and so Ramsay relied on her friends and teachers for meals.

Her teachers, she said, also helped her to find sponsors to pay her school fees.

“It was very difficult. I wasn’t fortunate like most children to have a cooked meal or a hot meal every day,” she said.

As she was unable to do all the subjects she wanted to at Trench Town High School which she attended, she sought permission to also attend Charlie Smith High as an exchange student. Ramsay said she wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education seeking approval to do courses at Charlie Smith during her free sessions.

So she attended both schools and studied English language, social studies, physical education, integrated science, food and nutrition, human and social biology, clothing and textiles, technical drawing, cosmetology, and barbering.

Despite her staunch determination to do well, she said she was constantly discouraged by not only her difficult circumstances, but also by people in her community who doubted she could succeed.

“Most people in the community, they are always looking for you to get pregnant before the time. There is that pressure people put on you saying ‘you a go breed’ and stuff like that. I had to be continuing to remind myself that I am not going to let the stigma determine who I become, I am not going to let it determine my future, I am going to come out,” Ramsay said.

According to Ramsay, she was set on being one of those residents who others could look up to.

“Even at the time when I was to do my CSEC [examinations], there was a gang war going on and I had to leave and go to a teacher’s house to stay in order to study,” Ramsay disclosed.

She was awarded a grade two in nine subjects, and a grade one in human and social biology.

But despite her success at that level and pride in how well she did, Ramsay, now 22, is still struggling to achieve her ultimate goal to escape poverty, this time through becoming a teacher of cosmetology and barbering.

She said she applied to the Vocational Training Development Institute, but has not been able to attend as she could not afford the fee of $186,000 per year. And she has not qualified for a loan from the Student Loan Bureau.

Still, despite her career being on hold currently, she has not given up.

“It is still my short- and long-term goal to pursue my career in that field,” Ramsay said, though she readily admits she does not know when she will be able to.

Meanwhile, life isn’t easy for the young woman, who is currently employed to the National Land Agency through the National Youth Service (NYS) where she works as a record officer.

However, she believes, to some extent, she can stand as an example of courage to her community.

Ramsay, who volunteered as a teaching assistant at Charlie Smith High after graduating, has encouraged others from a similar background or who are otherwise facing challenges, to set goals for themselves and follow through.

“Don’t find a negative reason to say that’s why you will fail. Find a reason to strive and not a reason to fail. Don’t make up an excuse and say, ‘It’s because this or that happened why I couldn’t do that’,” she said.

“I think that’s what the majority of the persons in the inner city do. They say it’s because they don’t have food, or any lunch money or they didn’t grow with any father or any mother, why they couldn’t achieve their own goals. Cut out the excuses,” Ramsay added.