MONEAGUE GRAD SAYS ‘SCHOOL STILL A KEEP’
MONEAGUE, St Ann; Nov 25, 2024
When she was announced as the student with the top grades for the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) courses at The Moneague College Nafisa Hayles was shocked.
After all, she has been a part-time student for the entire course of study for the Associate of Science Degree in Business Administration.
(Director of the CCCJ, Dr Donna Powell Wilson, left, making the presentation of the award to Nafisa Hayles)
Ms Hayles told the North Coast Times that it was not easy and sometimes the pressure to carry the school programme was immense since she started the programme in September 2022. “Sometimes the pressure… the pressure but I got this done,” she said.
She said throughout the two years all her grades were ‘A’s or ‘A’ minus except one at ‘B’ plus. “It was a bit shocking to hear the announcement but I did it.”
Most Outstanding Academic CCCJ Student – Nafisa Hayles.
That announcement, by Vice Principal for Student and Administrative Affairs Jacqueline Thames, was made at the Graduation Exercise of The Moneague College on Tuesday, November 19, 2024. Nafisa Hayles got the Highest GPA among graduates in the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) programmes. MONEAGUE GRADUATES PREPARED FOR THE WORLD
(Nafisa with sister Tatiana, left, and mother Sandra Luke)
Miss Hayles was also valedictorian at the Graduation of the Class of 2024.
She said: “It was not easy maintaining a school life, a personal life and a work life.” Ms Hayles said working and going to school meant that she and other working students had to “Learn on our own in addition to what the lecturers gave us. We had to find that information…we had to become the all-nighters,” she said.
(Celebrating with friend Toni-Ann)
Nafisa Hayles is not done yet. She works for OBF Finance Company (registered as New Era Finance) in Linstead, St Catherine. “School still a keep for me,” she says, referencing a refrain the graduates were committed to by keynote speaker Pastor Jermaine Johnson. She says she is continuing her business studies. Asked where she expects her career to take her she said: “I see myself climbing the ladder as a manager in finance.”
She says special thanks to her mother Sandra Luke, sister Tatiana Hayles and friends Toni-Ann Lawson Gordon and Ramone Amos.
