FOR Dr Neva Alexander, returning resident and proprietor of National Educational Venture Alliance (NEVA), a private firm aimed at assisting students with test preparation and educational recruitment based in Jamaica and the United States, she saw a need to guide local students in their preparation for test and applications for overseas colleges and universities. This gave her the impetus to return home and start her own business, registering NEVA two years ago.

“When I gave my first information session in Jamaica not everyone knew that universities required entrance exam scores. It was at that point, I realised that there was a gap in the services currently being offered in Jamaica and decided to return to Jamaica to help these students,” Dr Alexander, whose business is located along West Avenue in Kingston, stated in an interview with Career & Education recently.

“NEVA aims to transform lives through education. Our mission is to ensure that students, companies and educational institutions can compete and perform competently. Additionally, our goal is to enrich students’ learning through cross-cultural exchange,” she added.

Dr Alexander stated that the operations of her company are two-fold: “They are educational recruitment, where we address the needs of academic institutions, companies and students locally, nationally and internationally by providing teacher recruitment, students’ recruitment and educational consulting. And there is test prep, where we offer preparation classes to prepare students for university entrance exams,” she said.

Among the exams are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Test (ACT), the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), Graduate Management Exam (GMAT), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).

Alexander has served as a teacher and tutor in the US and an adjunct assistant professor at the City University of New York. She has also travelled to nations, such as, Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Nigeria, Egypt, Greece and France to mentor and teach leadership courses to women.

Since returning to Jamaica and establishing a business, Dr Alexander says, as would any other business she has faced challenges. But this is not new for her. Life has taught her how to deal with challenges for an early age.

Alexander said she lived in around 12 different homes before she left Jamaica at age 11. Although she passed her Common Entrance Examination for Holy Childhood High School, she was relocated to New York to live with her mother, who left Jamaica in search of better opportunities for both of them. She is, therefore, no stranger to hard work and looks forward to overcoming even future challenges.

In visioning her business five years from now, Alexander said she hopes to expand globally: “Within the next five years I hope to be operating in more Caribbean countries, as well as operating in the Middle East. I hope to continue to supply the Jamaican and the Caribbean markets as the company’s services are greatly needed. Many students desire to travel to study outside of Jamaica, and our offerings give them the necessary tools to realise their dreams,” she told Career & Education.

Alexander admitted that being an entrepreneur has also presented several benefits. Among them she lists:

“1. I get to meet a lot of people and I am able to network.

2. I get opportunities to travel and be a motivational speaker.

3. I have been exposed to other cultures and other cultural ways of thinking.

4. I get to be my own boss!

5. I have the ability to work on my individual skills of being both a boss and a leader, while finding ways through which to empower others.

6. I have got the opportunity to return to Jamaica to make a meaningful contribution to the education sector

7. I have been given the ability to identify societal problems and offer solutions

8. I have learnt the true meaning of respect, patience and humility and how to balance my professional goals with my personal ones.”