BEETHAM SCHOLAR

“It is not a question of where one lives, but a question of one’s mentality,” the 18-year-old scholar told Newsday yesterday after he and his proud single parent mother Juliana Crosby-Oladele visited this newspaper’s Chacon Street, Port-of-Spain head-office to share the good news. Crosby’s scholarship was won in the Natural Science category. He hopes his success will inspire others in his community and other economically depressed areas around the country, to strive for excellence, no matter what their circumstances may be. A former student of Tunapuna Secondary, where he completed his Caribbean Secondary Entrance Certificate (CSEC) exam and went to Hillview College where he completed the CAPE exam, Crosby explained that his success came through determination and a burning desire not to be, “another fellar on the block.” Admittedly though, he faced many distractions in his community including loud music in the area where he lives. But I kept my focus, he said, and in the end pulled through.

“I know that even though you’re from the Beetham Gardens, you can still make it and go out there and do great things,” said Crosby. “It’s not about where you live, but about your work ethic, having ambition to be more than just a ‘fellar on the block’, idling and not doing anything.

It’s about wanting to be more. Yes there will be distractions. There was loud music in the area now and then, things like that, but I never let those things distract me. And I didn’t take lessons because I didn’t want to put my family through any more financial constraints. I studied on my own,” he said. At the CAPE level, Crosby studied Pure Maths, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Communication Studies. In Unit 1, he attained five distinctions and in Unit II, he attained two distinctions, two ones and a two. The fact that he has earned a national scholarship has not yet sunk in for Crosby. “It feels surreal.

But all the same, it’s a nice, wonderful feeling.” While Crosby has completed his secondary level education he has been busy studying for the second part of the American Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which he will sit on November 7. He sat the first part of the exam on October 1, and his dream is to attend the University of Columbia, the University of California (UCLA) or Northwestern University.

As he spoke to Newsday, Crosby’s mother Juliana Crosby-Oladele could not help but smile as it was clear she was proud of her son. She said she was not surprised by his success and stressed the importance of the role of a parent or parents in charting the course of their children’s lives.

Crosby-Oladele, a camp matron at Presto Praesto Boys’ Youth Camp in Freeport, acknowledged the gang-related activity in her area, although she said only a very few miscreants are to blame for the stigma attached to the Beetham Gardens. She said the actions of these few bad eggs are sensationalised in the media.

“I’m not saying ‘no’, there is no gang-related activity in the community, but one of the things that fully contributed to me steering my children in a particular direction as a single parent was having worked for and among at-risk young people, for well over nineteen years. I saw their experiences, I went into their world and I knew what they were experiencing in terms of parenting. I think parenting is a great factor and it proves that no matter where you are, according to your parenting style, that is what is going to determine the product your children become.

Apart from Ajamu, Crosby-Oladele can feel proud that her 20-year-old daughter is studying civil engineering at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), she has a 17-year-old son who is studying graphic design at UTT and a 15-year-old who is a Form 4 student at Tunapuna Secondary.