GoodHeart |NCB Foundation scholar Paul Brown aims to ‘make a mark’
Credits his grandma for never giving up on him
by Ainsworth Morris/Staff Reporter · The GleanerWhen Paul Brown was announced as the winner of the National Commercial Bank Foundation’s Dr Rickert Allen Scholarship, he shed tears of joy.
It was a breakthrough moment after a rough period, not just over the last 20 years but particularly the last 10 months, following the murder of his brother, Aaon Hall, allegedly by his estranged girlfriend.
After walking up to Marsha Smith, state minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth, to collect his award of $600,000 annually for his tertiary studies, he was unable to control his emotions.
“I’m really excited. I was chosen out of so many applicants. It’s really special to know that I’m a part of not just a new family, but I’ve gained a new territory,” the youth, who will be pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in networking and a focus on cybersecurity, said.
“I realise that a lot of persons are having [several] issues with scamming and [there are] persons taking advantage of older people because they don’t have enough knowledge. So I saw that as a really good space for me, and then I am really good with technology as well, and it will be a way for me to help others,”Brown, who hails from Wynter Pen Road in St Catherine, told The Gleaner in a recent interview.
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He chose the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) because he had previously enrolled in a K-13 associate degree programme in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) at the UCC, which he found online, costing $25,000 per semester. However, he was unable to complete it because of financial constraints.
“Initially when I left high school, I did not want to go to university; or it’s not that I didn’t want to go, but I knew the circumstances of my grandmother, so I said to myself, ‘This is it. I wasn’t going to university’. However, I was a part of the K-13 programme and during that time it was COVID-19 and online school. I was walking about a mile away from home to use Wi-Fi. When going into year two, I didn’t have a device [because] mine got destroyed and I just gave up on it,” Brown explained, adding, “I didn’t have any assistance. Nobody was around to help me, so I just fell through the cracks.”
Starting the associate degree was a challenge, Brown said. After receiving the acceptance letter, he picked guineps, walked to the nearest highway, and sold them to raise the money needed for tuition.
“I was saying to myself, ‘This is so embarrassing’, because so many people knew me, but I didn’t watch that. After I started, and I made my $25,000 in less than two weeks, but I did not go back there, and from there my grandmother was able to help me until my device got destroyed,” he said.
He praises his grandmother for her support, as his parents gave himself and his brother to her care before he started Grade One. He hasn’t seen them since, but hears from them occasionally.
“My grandmother is everything to me. This woman goes above and beyond for me. She didn’t have to take us in. She did everything. I remember, when I started primary school, I could not spell the word ‘cat’. I should have been in Grade Three and my grandmother seh, ‘Mi a go teach you’, and she sat me down and taught me how to spell. She was there every single day to pick me up. She walked me home. She did everything for me to this point.”
Although he initially passed his GSAT exams to attend Wolmer’s Boys’ School, he transferred to Jose Marti Technical High School to be closer to home. By the end of his fifth-form tenure, he had earned CSEC passes in English Language, mathematics, industrial technology, AutoCAD, religious education, and technical drawing.
After completing his degree programme, Brown hopes to create impact on the lives of others, especially those in need.
“The impact that I want to make is not just nationally, but more so outside of the territory of Jamaica. I want to make a mark so that every single person that comes in contact with the name Paul Brown should know who I am. But I am thinking of working at the Bank of Jamaica. That’s where my mindset is at right now,” the scholar shared.