BY NADINE WILSON

Career & Education reporter

UP to the ninth grade, Holmwood High School head boy Omiel Smikle could barely read, had pretty low self-esteem, and was struggling to send himself to school from his measly earnings doing odd jobs. But undaunted by his shortcomings, the 20-year-old has managed to do well for himself academically and is now a beacon of hope for the Manchester institution which for the last few years has been grappling with the gruesome deaths of some of its young minds through motor vehicle crashes.

Smikle is now serving his second year as a head boy at the institution, having won his peers’ and teachers’ confidence to vote him into the post on two separate occasions.

“I try to humble myself and do my school work and so I was selected prefect and then from there, got the opportunity to go to sixth form and in lower sixth I got the head boy position,” he said. “Then I reapplied, seeing that my mandate was not completed. I wanted the opportunity to change the ethos of Holmwood Technical High School and to build it on more godly principles and I sought the opportunity to be selected and I got this two times.”

In addition to completing his leadership mandate and focusing on his academic pursuits, Smikle recently started a small farm from which he hopes to earn money to fund his schooling. Prior to doing so, the youngster had done odd jobs working on farms, construction sites as well as in a restaurant cleaning up. His last gig was working in a feed store in Manchester and from this job he was able to earn a salary to purchase his uniform and other school necessities. He got this job, after, sending out hundreds of resumes following the completion of fifth form. However, after a few months of working at the store, he fell ill and had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies from what doctors speculated might have been leptospirosis.

“I was at work one day and I felt my entire body go into pain, and I asked the boss permission to go home and I went home. I found that I couldn’t do anything. I could not walk and I was in a position where I could not manage myself and I went to the hospital. I was admitted at Percy Junor and then to Mandeville Hospital and from there to UWI Hospital,” he said.

Given the health scare, Smikle sought to do a bit of farming to earn his keep afterwards. About three months ago, he relocated from his family home in Manchester to go and live with his uncle and his family in Trelawny on whose farm he works.

“They gave me some yam sticks and they dig the yam hole for me. I was glad they gave me,” said Smikle, who was able to pass eight subjects at the CSEC level and is currently preparing to do his Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations in the coming months.

Smikle has a twin sister and is one of four children for his mother who is a helper and barely makes enough from washing and cleaning for others to send him to school. His father, he was told, died when an electric wire choked him as he was travelling home on the back of truck one day. Prior to this, he said he did not have much contact with him. Instead, he said it was the teachers at the school who would at times assist and supplement the help he receives from the government’s Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH). He also got a scholarship from the school as well which helped with his tuition.

“I paid my first school fee from my savings pan and that’s how I got to Holmwood Technical High School,” he said. “I am a goal-oriented person who believes in hard work.”

Guidance Counsellor Lucetta Samuels Hall said Smikle has managed to earn the respect of the student body and staff members alike because of his commitment and his sense of purpose.

“Even though he has financial challenges, that doesn’t stop him and he is dedicated, very respectful, very committed and gets along well with everyone, whether persons in authority or the students in general,” she said. “He is definitely someone that students and other persons can emulate.”

Smikle had to miss out a number of years at primary school because he was being targeted by gangs.

“I was going to primary school, but there were a lot of gangs in school, so I had to hide away from class because of those students. They were always after me. But what I did was to report them to the teacher and the principals, but those guys, police also wanted them, so I had to stay away from school,” he said.

“Back then, I don’t even remember collecting a report, because I was always away from class,” said Smikle who eventfully returned to school full-time in the fifth grade. A year later he did his Grade Six Achievement Test and was placed at the Lowe River All-Age School in South Trelawny.

It was while at all-age school that Smikle had an epiphany and decided that he wanted a better life for himself than the one he had been born into. He enrolled in reading classes and gradually improved academically, to the point where he was able to secure a government placement at Holmwood after sitting the Grade Nine Achievement Test.

“When I came to Holmwood, I said to myself, I am not going to go to anymore reading classes, and I said to myself that I am going to do whatever it takes to better myself, knowing that most of my time was spent away from school and in doing so, I tried to assist other persons.”

“I grew up with very low self-esteem, but I am resilient, because although my reading ability was not there at first and now I am still challenged with regards to my reading ability, many persons do not really know that,” he said.

In addition to motivating those at school, Smikle, who is a secretary for his church’s men’s fellowship, tries to inspire other young people he comes across in his community. His ultimate goal, he said, is to one day become a minister of the gospel, but right now he is just focused on doing whatever he can to educate himself. One of the things he has considered is to join the police force after completing school so he could finance his tuition when he eventually applies to university.

“You can’t really get a good job unless you go to university, so I want to go to university because of that,”

he said

“I want to get the experience of being at a university and I also want to go to a Bible college, but everything is based on money, and that is my problem,” he said.