MONTEGO BAY, St James — As the first child born to her parents, Tashara Furze has always felt like she has big shoes to fill, and she did just that.

After walking across the stage with other graduates of the recent The University of the West Indies, Mona Class of 2022, Furze is now the first in her family to not only hold a bachelor’s degree but to have attended a tertiary institution.

The 27-year-old Montegonian told the Jamaica Observer that she is overwhelmed with pride having been awarded a first-class honours degree in primary education with a major in mathematics from the Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, where she sat the courses, but which are accredited by UWI, hence her ability to participate in The UWI graduation.

“I feel really proud. I have been crying since graduation day and I constantly look at my graduation picture. I keep looking at it and saying that I did this! I really did it,” Furze said.

Though the journey was not an easy one, the young woman told the Sunday Observer that the sense of accomplishment she now feels, coupled with her genuine love for the teaching profession, has made it all worth it.

“I feel good about myself because I am doing this and I am making an impact. I am now working as a teacher and I really love teaching math. It gives me so much joy when I teach a topic and the students respond to it well,” Furze said while noting that she is now employed at the Bethel Town Primary School in Westmoreland.

While sharing her journey through teachers’ college with the Sunday Observer, Furze described the very sad reality of many tertiary students ailing from low-income families. However, the young teacher was determined to rise above the ashes in a bid to show her three siblings that it is possible to succeed regardless of their financial background.

“My journey was a bit rough. In the first year I had funding, but after that, I wasn’t sure of how I would continue because my mother wasn’t working at the time and she didn’t want me to take a student’s loan. She eventually got a job and started contributing to my tuition, but we couldn’t afford to pay it all at once so she would help me to get other grants,” said Furze.

The onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic also brought its fair share of difficulties for Furze. With neither a secure Internet connection at home nor a suitable device to access the virtual learning space, she feared being left behind. Nevertheless, the young teacher refused to give up on her dream.

“The pandemic came and everything went downhill, so I had no choice but to take a student loan for that year because she couldn’t afford the tuition and nobody else in my family was working at the time,” she explained.

Furze continued, “During that year I had to do my teaching practice online and I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t have any resources. I didn’t have a laptop, I didn’t have any teaching aids to help me with my teaching practice and I also didn’t have a stable place to teach from, so I had to be moving from a friend’s house to another friend’s house.”

“Sometimes I had to be travelling from two or three communities just to get what I needed to execute my lessons,” Furze told the Sunday Observer.

Acknowledging the assistance she has received over her four-year tenure at the Montego Bay-based teachers’ college, Furze recounted how the kindness showed by a stranger helped to clear tuition owed during her final year.

“The bursar at my school told me about a tuition grant that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security was offering. When I went there it was the final day for submission and I had left a recommendation from a lecturer at my school. A lady at the office asked if I would be able to get this document by tomorrow,” she said.

“She told me that if I could get it by the next day she would squeeze me through and try to have me as a part of the programme. I prayed about it because I really needed it, then I called my lecturer, got the recommendation, and brought it in the next day. I remember her telling me, ‘I see your determination and your grades are really good, so I am going to give you the push’,” Furze added.

Last Sunday’s graduation was the “icing on the cake” for the young teacher who stated that regardless of the minor roadblocks encountered, she had always maintained focus while refusing to forget why she started.

“I was so elated and I felt so proud. My family was also very proud. They kept saying, ‘look at that, you are the first person from the family to go to college and now you are graduating with a first-class honours degree.’ I was just overwhelmed with emotions,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“After the graduation, my sister told me that mommy was crying because she saw me walk across the stage and she heard my name. She was just so proud to know that I didn’t just stop at CXC. I now have a bachelor’s degree,” said the proud graduate.

Now, as Furze transitions into her new role as a math teacher, she is boldly ready to inspire and educate the children entering her classroom.

“I told myself that I do not want to be an ordinary teacher, I want to be a teacher of change. I want to change students’ view of math,” said the Bethel Town Primary School teacher.