FROM their modest home in Claremont, St Ann, four girls dreamt of building successful careers while spending long hours at the library, applying for every grant and scholarship possible, and pushing each other to never give up.

Now adults, the sisters’ shared dream has been realised, and it has taken them to different corners of the globe.

The eldest, Dr Leonia Jackson Vincent, is a second-year postgraduate resident physician in family medicine in the United States. Veronia Jackson works in Germany as a programme assistant with UNESCO-UNEVOC — an international centre for technical and vocational education and training. Jeronia Jackson is an assistant language teacher in Japan, and the youngest, Jurrolia Powell, is a registered nurse at Bustamante Hospital for Children in Jamaica.

Despite living oceans apart, the sisters remain deeply connected, leaning on each other through every milestone and challenge. They say their unbreakable bond is a testament to the love and sacrifices of their parents, Levy and Judith Jackson, who not only encouraged them to reach for the stars but also nurtured the sisterhood that continues to anchor them today.

Leonia told the Jamaica Observer that their mother, a dedicated educator, always instilled in them the belief that education is the key to a better life. Though they couldn’t afford to attend summer school or extra classes, she said their mom would sit with them at home and teach them whatever she could, often learning alongside them.

“She has been one of the most instrumental persons in helping us get to where we are today. She was the only one in her family who completed high school. She never went to college until I started going to college, but she saw the need for education; she understood the importance of education, and she instilled that in us so much [so] that it’s a mantra,” she said.

Leonia said her love for science came naturally, but for her siblings, it was shaped by circumstance. With limited resources, her textbooks were passed down and each sister ended up studying the sciences.

She recounted spending countless hours at the library with her siblings, joking that they knew every corner of the building and that all the librarians knew them by name.

The physician said scholarships and grants were crucial in funding their education, and they would search high and low for any opportunity to further their studies.

After graduating from Fern Court High School, Leonia went back to teach the sciences before enrolling in medical school at The University of the West Indies. She shared that she’d initially paid full tuition but earned scholarships that eventually covered the rest of her studies.

In 2015, Leonia graduated with honours in medicine and surgery and worked at St Ann’s Bay Hospital before migrating to the United States in 2022.

“Just because you are coming from humble beginnings, it doesn’t exclude you from accessing the highest form of education that you can. It just may mean that you have to apply yourself a little bit more, you have to be a little bit more disciplined and regimental than someone who has access to everything at their fingertips,” Leonia told the Sunday Observer as she encouraged young people to dream big.

When she left Jamaica to pursue her residency in the US, Leonia said she was the second sibling to migrate, following behind Jeronia, who’d left for Tokyo, Japan, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Veronia migrated to Germany earlier this year.

Despite the miles separating them, Leonia said their bond is still strong.

“My mom used to always joke and say, ‘Oh, I had four of you, so you can be each other’s best friends,’ so we did just that. We became each other’s best friends, each other’s accountability partner — holding each other accountable — pulling one when someone is stumbling. We used to always hold each other’s hands and kind of go through life, and we still do that,” she shared.

WhatsApp has been their main mode of communication, with each sibling keeping track of the time differences to determine the best period to talk.

Jeronia, the first to leave Jamaica, described her move to Tokyo during the pandemic as both emotional and frightening.

Before migrating, she said they had always lived together: she lived with Veronia, and Jurrolia lived with Leonia, but they would often swap siblings — each always having a sister within close proximity. However, that dynamic changed in 2020.

Jeronia said her journey was filled with twists, turns, and unexpected obstacles, but each time she pivoted and persevered. After high school, she considered becoming a nurse but struggled with mathematics, which led to her enrolling at The Moneague College to pursue a diploma in teaching.

Despite financial challenges and, more than once, being encouraged to sit out a year of learning, she successfully applied for grants and scholarships and completed her studies in 2013.

She later relocated to St Catherine, and worked in call centres while pursuing a Bachelor of Education degree at The Mico University College. Jeronia graduated in 2017 and secured a teaching job at a primary school in St Catherine, where she taught for two years before migrating to Japan.

“At the time when I was migrating, I was just adamant that I had already applied for the programme, and although it’s COVID time, I’m not going to give in, I’m just going to follow through with the plan. When I was going to travel, my flights got cancelled, but they kept rescheduling the flight.

“When I was coming to Japan, I came over here on the last plane before they closed the borders. When I was at the airport, all of the flights were cancelled. The only flight that was on time was my flight, and when I came over here, the border was closed behind me,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Given the circumstances, the transition was very difficult but her sisters were with her every step of the way.

“They would call me in the middle of the night when it would be daytime for them. As time [went] by, we kept in contact. I would share my experiences with them. It’s been totally different; it’s a different culture, the language is different, so they kind of learn vicariously through my experiences,” said Jeronia.

When schools reopened, she landed a full-time job teaching in public schools and a part-time job as a private English teacher. Since then, she has taught at multiple elementary and kindergarten schools in East Asian country and is currently teaching at the junior high level.

“I’m now putting my real-life experience in writing, and I’m currently launching the first book of my series, which is ‘Your Story Time’ series. I’ve completed book one; it’s a children’s book teaching them about the culture in Japan,” she shared.

The book is expected to be launched next month.

A lover of literature, Veronia also describes herself as a passionate writer with a deep appreciation for poetry. While she initially aspired to become a nurse, her family’s experiences and the challenges faced in accessing education ultimately inspired her to follow a different path: one focused on making education more inclusive and accessible.

After high school, she got work experience through the Human Employment and Resource Training/National Service Training Agency Trust (HEART/NSTA Trust), specialising in vocational training — an experience that fuelled her interest in the field. This led her to enrol at the Vocational Training Development Institute, where she pursued a bachelor’s degree in career development.

In 2021, during a particularly tumultuous period in her life, Veronia went on to complete her master’s degree in education planning and policy.

“I’ve been working with youth for the past seven years and exploring trends in terms of the role education plays in advancing young people, looking at the upbringing I would have had, along with my sisters, and filling some gaps. I really want to contribute to the inclusiveness of education and in terms of making it equitable for everybody,” she told the Sunday Observer.

She shared that, at one point, she worked three jobs to put herself through university. She completed her graduate degree around the time a position was listed for a programme assistant in Germany with UNESCO-UNEVOC.

Veronia applied and was successful.

“We often want things to go how we want them to go, we want the road to be straight, but it’s not always going to be straight. It is important for us to keep rolling with the punches. I think for me, my spirituality has been very important and family support, and just that intrinsic motivation to keep going,” said Veronia.

She urged young Jamaicans to stay informed and make use of the opportunities that are out there, noting that they are vast in number.

“I think one of the things that we have learned is to find a history of both education and working. I think it’s the African proverb that says, ‘When you carry your own water, you learn the value of every drop.’ That has been very instrumental for us,” Veronia said.

The youngest of the four siblings, Jurrolia, shared that she considers herself fortunate to learn from her sisters’ experiences, often relying on their guidance when faced with difficult life decisions.

“There are a lot of things that I’ve never had to experience because they’ve experienced it before, and they can just tell me to do this or say, ‘This is a better way to do it.’ It’s one of the best things. I have three best friends, so life is just better,” she told the
Sunday Observer.

Jurrolia shared that despite their five-year age gap, her eldest sister Leonia has profoundly influenced her life and was a major driving force behind her decision to pursue a career in medicine.

Jurrolia recalled that after graduating from high school, she took a gap year and explored teaching. During that time, her close bond with Leonia meant frequent weekend visits that often began with being handed stacks of study cards and notes filled with medical jargon. She laughed as she recounted how, after moving in with Leonia, she was further immersed in the world of medicine, joking that she learned a surprising amount against her will.

During their many study sessions, her love for the medical field grew, and she decided to pursue nursing. The youngest of the four, she said her parents’ financial resources had somewhat depleted after helping her sisters through school, but she was adamant that she would find a way to make it work.

Instead of moving to Kingston, which would’ve been more expensive, she studied nursing in St Ann and lived with Leonia, who, at the time, was an intern at St Ann’s Bay Hospital. To fund her education, she applied for a student loan for her first year of school and was later awarded a scholarship that covered her remaining three years.

“I would be there on the weekends with her; I would have the opportunity to go to the hospital, even when it’s not like a clinical rotation to just practise, and she would guide me through certain things because a lot of the information overlapped, and a lot of the skills overlap,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Unfortunately, despite having dreamt of it for years, she said they were never able to work together because Leonia migrated shortly after she finished nursing school in 2022. The following year, Jurrolia moved to Kingston, where she now works as a registered nurse at Bustamante Hospital for Children.

The only sister in Jamaica, Jurrolia shared that it was a bittersweet moment when her sisters migrated, but she is happy for their success and the ability to still be close to her parents. She said WhatsApp messages and calls with her sisters are always a blast, and she is grateful to be surrounded by supportive family members.

Jurrolia encouraged young people to make the most of the opportunities they have, put in the work, and dare to be different.

“God places people in your life who are going to expose you to knowledge, who are going to guide you, mentors, and so on, but a significant portion of that is your individual drive and your discipline that you have for yourself.

“A lot of times I don’t want to go to school and I don’t want to study, but I know that I have to do it because of a certain outcome that I want. It’s about putting in the hard work regardless of what everybody else is doing. I’m sure parties are fun, going out with your friends, that’s fun, but you have to have a balance,” she advised.

Veronia Jackson is making waves in Germany as a programme assistant with UNESCO-UNEVOC, an international centre for technical and vocational education and training.

Jurrolia Powell is a registered nurse at the Bustamante Hospital for Children and the youngest sister of the four siblings.

Sisters on the job Dr Leonia Jackson and Nurse Jurrolia Powell pose for a photo during a medical exercise.

Veronia Jackson (second left) poses for a photo with her family moments after graduating from the Vocational Training Development Institute. She is joined by (from left) her parents Judith and Levy Jackson, and her sisters Jurrolia and Jeronia Jackson.

Dr Leonia Jackson, the eldest of the four sisters, is a family medicine physician in the United States.

Jeronia Jackson is making strides in classrooms in Japan as an assistant language teacher.