Leteacher Ennis conquered many odds to join the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and climb the rungs to reach the level of a corporal.

But Ennis has not stopped and she is now knocking on the doors of the Norman Manley Law School after completing a Bachelor of Law degree offered by the University of London, through the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC).

Ennis recalled how her parents were poor but said she did not realise that until she started high school.

She told the Jamaica Obserrver that she carried her books in a plastic bag while in primary school and sometimes went barefooted.

Her father was a callaloo farmer, while her mother took care of her and five siblings.

“My father would get up from early in the mornings to tend to his farm. He would push his cart from 3 am to go sell callaloo. My siblings and I would be on the road and we would push the cart a certain distance until the sun came out. He would be back home about 8 pm and all this time he was on his feet,” said Ennis as she pointed to her father as her source of inspiration and strength.

“He was not somebody who liked handouts. Whatever he believes that we need, he makes an effort to get it. My mother was mostly unemployed but she was very hospitable. She was the kind of person who would always be there to assist you.”

Now assigned to the Curriculum Development Unit of the National Police College of Jamaica, Ennis, who is a past student of Knox College in Clarendon, shared that she was thrown out of her father’s house on the cusp of becoming 18 years old, “for being too argumentative”.

She also became pregnant as a teenager and moved from being a clerk, housekeeper, secretary and hotel worker in various capacities at an establishment in Mandeville, Manchester, and from there, to become a member of the JCF and an aspiring attorney-at-law.

“I did my Caribbean Examination Council exams and graduated from high school and you think you are grown. My father and I had run-ins regularly. He is strong spirited and so am I. He would have to explain everything and sometimes parents don’t want to do that. Of course, He threw me out of the house early.

“By then I was working at El Instituto De Mandevilla. I was able to get somewhere to stay and I paid a small fee. I decided I wanted something else out of life and went to Guardsman Limited where I worked as a receivable payments clerk,“ said Ennis.

“While I was there, at 17-year-old, I got pregnant. After having my son, I didn’t get back the work at Guardsman. I had to find other means of taking care of myself and my son,” added Ennis.

She said she saw an advertisement for a job as a housekeeper in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, and applied. She was accepted and held the job for some four months. Her employer at that time encouraged her to apply for teacher’s college, which she did.

But by the time school was to start, Ennis became pregnant again, this time with a daughter.

She abandoned the idea of attending teachers’ college to pick up a job at a hotel in Mandeville, Manchester, as a receptionist.

She said that as a black woman with unprocessed hair, she began facing discrimination and claimed the operators of the hotel had been heard agreeing among themselves that she was not front desk material.

“I ended up processing my hair. I was going to church and my church did not beleive in processed hair, but I did it to see how it played out. I ended up working with the manager as her secretary. She was a motivator who encouraged me to go back to school. She helped me with my communication, my writing and all kinds of things.

“After having my daughter and doing all of that, I was working with the service team as a waitress at the hotel. This was 2006 and I stayed at the hotel until I left to go join the JCF. I developed some of my leadership skills while working at the hotel in various capacities,” added Ennis.

In 2011, she joined the JCF and at that time, she said all her formative years started making sense to her. She went on to work as a cop in St Ann who did general police duties as well as administrative work. After completing criminal investigations training, Ennis was sent to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) where she spent eight years.

“The CISOCA assignment was when I realised how everything comes full circle. I saw it as the opportunity to contribute better to the society. At CISOCA in 2018, I did the exam and was promoted to corporal. In 2019 I was transferred to Community Safety and Security Branch in St Ann where I worked with the schools and the churches.

“In November 2021, I was transferred to the National Police College of Jamaica where I currently work.”

Excited about her dreams to become a lawyer, Ennis shared that she isn’t interested in doing criminal law.

Before pursuing the law degree and entering the JCF, Ennis attempted the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants Exams, but ended up failing.

“For various reasons including financial and my mental state and when I realised I was pregnant I failed my fourth exam three times. By then I had two children to take care of. I became a single mother and I had to make a decision. Even though I wanted something for myself, I also did not want to leave them.

“After joining the JCF, I enrolled at another institution, but again the whole timing and thinking where to leave the children, became another burden so I had to rethink. When I was going through that, I enrolled at HEART and did a diploma in business management. In 2017 I enrolled with the University of London through UCC for the bachelor’s programme.

“ I had classes on Saturdays in Kingston and when classes finished at 9 pm I had to hurry to Spanish Town to get down to Ocho Rios so that I didn’t leave them alone at nights. Come Sunday morning bright and early I had to be up again to head to Kingston for class at 8 am.”

She had to make more comfortable and convenient arrangemments with a family member in Portmore, St Catherine.

“After a while I started staying with my cousin on Saturday nights and somebody assisted me with the kids. That’s how it happened for three years until I was able to complete the programme. I am now waiting to attend Norman Manley so I can finish up what I have started. I strongly beleive that once I get to do this, it will give me a better balance, a better understanding so I can even contribute better this country. I don’t see myself going anywhere else to live,” declared Ennis.

The aspiring attorney told the Observer that she would love to see Jamaica reach a stage where children are treated as priority.

“So many children are losing their parents to violence and if no one tries to assist them, it is likely they will add to the negative in a few years. If we want to make changes, we have to start with the young children. A lot of the times we are too concentrated on reaching them at 15, 16 and 20 when they have formed their own opinion and made up their own minds and they are a bit harder to reach,” argued Ennis.