IN the same way she uses her zeal and analytical skills to outwit players in a game of chess, Adani Clarke fuelled those efforts in her academics to reap success.

The 18-year-old, who attends St Jago High School, got accepted to nine universities, with one offering a full scholarship.

To her delight, that school, Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was her first choice.

“It was definitely like chess because throughout the game there are times when it gets tough and you don’t even know what to play, or times when you are not in the best position and you just have to think and do the work and find the best way out. Sometimes you don’t get the results you want but a lot of times once you put in the effort and actually think about the plans, you’re successful in the end,” she told Career & Education.

Balancing schoolwork and tournaments was no match for Clarke, who has been playing chess for 10 years.

“It was definitely difficult but for the most part, manageable when I had the tournaments and had to travel. It was either during summer or Easter break. So they didn’t interfere with school that much, so I was able to balance my time easier. But there is one tournament that occurs during school time, I took two to three weeks away from school and when I came back it was really hard to catch up but I was able to,” she said.

She has represented Jamaica in international chess tournaments such as Carifta Games, Central America and Caribbean Youth Chess, Pan American Youth Games and World Chess Olympiad and mostly copped the title of female champion.

Those tournaments were held in a number of countries including Martinique, Columbia, Barbados, Curaçao, Ecuador, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Clarke, who now heads the Chess Club at her school, was the National Female Under-18 Chess Champion before becoming the National Women’s Chess Champion in 2020.

Asked if she credits chess for her academic success, she said, “Definitely. It was a huge part of my profile where I started my summer programme called arithmetic and chess where I combined chess and mathematics to help students struggling in maths. Chess helped me academically growing up. It helped me to continue being diligent in my studies and stay focused.”

Manager of the chess programme at St Jago High School, Claire Grant, described Clarke as a “student of the game”.

“I would certainly expect that a lot of discipline that is required to be good at chess would have certainly trickled over into her studies in a very real way. Outside of that, because of how well she has done, she has travelled and represented Jamaica and I also am aware that travelling at a young age helps to grow you up. The maturity that comes because of the exposure of travelling and representing the country is only going to also make you become more mature in how you go about doing things, and the schoolwork would obviously would be benefiting from all of that,” she said.

Principal at the school, Collette Fuertado Pryce, also shared that Clarke has an impeccable academic record.

“This has been the case since first form, as well as in her co-curricular activities. She is quiet, unassuming, very respectful. She has demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities and she is well rounded,” she said.

Although she was unable to give the total number of students who got scholarships to study overseas this year, as that information would not be available as yet, Fuertado Pryce said there is usually a “long reel” of students.

“There are too many to list, especially over the past three years too. Especially our track and field athletes. They’ve got full scholarships to Ivy League schools as well. We have had scholarships to universities in China… University of Toronto,” she said.

The principal also lauded the efforts of founder and CEO of Aim Educational Services Nicole McLaren Campbell, along with her team, for helping with the preparation of students for studies overseas.

“Because of the guidance that they gave to us as a school, we actually reviewed our transcripts. Not that our students were not marketable before, we were able to review our transcripts to really sell our school even better, to meet the criteria for scholarships,” she said.

“It was a team effort in trying to make Adani successful. We worked with the principal, guidance counsellor, her mom and what we have created is something that will benefit St Jago students decades to come, it’s not just Adani,” McLaren Campbell explained.

“It is all about making changes that all students will benefit from. They have put in the work, they have made the sacrifices and it’s about whether you are communicating that to colleges in the clearest way possible.”

Indeed, Clarke made her parents Nikliela and Wayne proud. Her mom Nikliela said she always aspires to do her best.

“She works towards it and she has been successful. It takes time, it takes work, but she is willing to put in the work. I am just proud she stayed focused over the years, every step of the way, and she has made us all extremely proud. I am looking forward to her remaining focused, of course she is going far from us and that makes me a little worried as any mom would be, but I am confident that if she continues on the path she is on, she will do well,” she said.

In her sitting of Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) last year, Clarke got ones in biology, chemistry, physics, two in pure mathematics, and three in Caribbean studies.

She now has her eyes set on completing her Unit 2 exams, before heading off to university in September to study chemistry.