Who is Nadine Molloy?

ASK her the question ‘who is Nadine Molloy?’ and she will laughingly, yet proudly, declare ‘Mass Ezy daughter from Spring Hill, Portland’. But Molloy has come a long way from being the little country girl who would play truant to go to the river to fish. She has climbed the ranks to recently being voted president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA).

“Going into the office, I recognised the challenges,” Molloy told All Woman in an interview last week. “And I won’t pretend that I have all the answers, which is why my theme, ‘creative partnerships sustaining educational opportunities for national development’ is very important to me. It simply means that I am going to be calling on all those persons who can assist me in ensuring that it’s about doing what’s right for the country. That’s basically what it is for me.”

Molloy, who is the principal of the Buff Bay High School in Portland, is the 46th president and 10th female leader of the 23,000-strong JTA. And while it is a humbling experience for her, it is the thought of where she is coming from that wells tears in her eyes.

“Spring Hill is the best place to live. You see when I was growing up? Everybody was responsible for you. I had the typical rural upbringing — going to the river, catching janga (fish), [playing truant] to go catch janga, pick mango, rose apple, the whole works. I used to teach trees,” she laughed. “But going to the river really stands out in my mind. I did a lot of walking, a lot of outdoor stuff.” In fact, she was regarded as a tomboy.

But while she was regarded as a tomboy, she learnt to cook at the age of six after being paid by her father, former mayor EzeKiah Molloy, to prepare his meals.

“My father used to pay me to cook breakfast for him. We raised chickens, so the first meal I cooked would have been breakfast made of eggs,” she said. “I don’t remember how much he used to pay, but I remember it was in coins!”

Growing up with her parents, two brothers, five sisters and a cousin, was a lot of fun for Molloy.

“We did everything that children do,” she recalled. “But I remember that we were really very happy. Life was just cool. We didn’t get electricity in Spring Hill until 1980 or ’81. We used to travel on the big country buses. My mother was a teacher at the Birnamwood All-Age where we attended. My father had a vehicle, but if my mother wasn’t going to school he wouldn’t take us. So we had to walk about two miles, and that was good ’cause it was good exercise. We used to do all sorts of stuff on the way.”

Today, one of her joys is going back into the community where her parents still reside.

“My father is 74 and he tells me if I am like him when I get to his age I’ll be lucky,” she added with a wide smile. He drives my mother around everywhere. So everytime I pass them driving around in the country, I just blow my horn and say ‘driving Miss Daisy!’.”

But going back into her community is not just a mission to see her parents, but the entire parish as she feels a sense of pride in being a role model.

“Because I came from a community where people encouraged you, I really feel good,” she said. “You don’t always hear a lot about Portland, but I am happy I am able to contribute. One of the happiest moments was in my inauguration when I saw the students from my school perform and when I saw their response to me being proclaimed president. I was very happy that I could provide that experience for them, because I am one of them,” she said.

After leaving Birnamwood All-Age, Molloy attended the Marymount High school in Highgate, a school she said she’s very proud of. There she was head girl and was active in the Key Club, serving as secretary to the lieutenant governor of the division.

“Marymount life was wonderful. I was always involved in student governance — always. That was a wonderful experience. That’s where I met my three best friends — Natalie Leighton St Lois, Audrey Watson and Gaye Willis-Bryan. Today we do everything together — hang out, travel, cruises, and they are great moral supports.”

She then attended Exed Community College, then worked at the Jamaica Library Service. But despite her dream of becoming a lawyer, she got a teaching job at Bishop Gibson High School in Mandeville. After eight months, she was hooked.

“At this point I realised I was just totally hooked I realised teaching was what I wanted to do,” Molloy said.

It was while at Bishop Gibson that Molloy did her teacher training at Church Teachers’ College through the advanced placement programme. She then did her Masters. She explained that through all of her studies, she was still very active in the JTA.

Molloy, who was awarded Lasco Principal of the Year 2009/10, has served the Institute of Jamaica Council, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust board and the Coffee Industry board.

One of her dreams is to travel the world. She has completed the Caribbean, 18 states in the United States, and some territories in Central America.

She spoke proudly of her adopted daughter Keneisha who is also a teacher.

“I have had her for 20 years, she is now 21-years-old,” she said with a smile. “My mother helped me to raise her in the early years. And my sister Nicki has made major contribution. She (Keneisha) just graduated from Church Teacher’s College. And now she is going to go to Mico to do special education, she is switching from early childhood to do special education.”

She admitted that growing her daughter has been challenging as she has had to apply tough love and saw the child through the years of accepting she was adopted.

The soon to be 44-year-old said persons have a tendency to feel that you have to be old before you can achieve something, but this is not necessarily so as her appointment has proven.

Bur she doesn’t expect her role as president to be an easy one.

“You get worked!” she laughed. “Contrary to what people think, you have to work. You actually have two jobs because you are running your school just the same and you have to back up as president and you begin to put your thing into action from then because you contribute to what is happening.”

“I will be welcoming all suggestions,” she said. “All of them I won’t be able to take on board but what I can take on board, I certainly will be. At the end of the year, I just want to know that we have taken it a step further in the right direction.”