My mother is my idol and always has been. Her perseverance and dedication to education, even in the face of adversity, has always inspired me and is undeniably one of the most important factors in who I am as a person today. My mother moved here as a teenager from Jamaica. She was the only member of her family to finish college and pursued her undergrad in psychology. She had my eldest sister after and was working while pursuing her masters. During this time my aunt was struggling and so she and her 6 daughters lived with us as well. By the time I was born my mother was taking care of the 10 of us while going to school full time. Unfortunately, my father did not stick around through this hard time, and it was up to my mother to take care of all of us. As a child this made an impression on me, I learned quickly that our education can be our most valued treasure and that my mother continued her pursuit of knowledge even though she faced these difficulties.
Eventually, my family and I moved to our own house and my aunt got her own place as well. It was now just me, my mom, my 3 sisters, my grandmother, and my mom's little brother. He started staying with us after he was put on disability. Around this time my mother began to study for her PhD. Also, by this time I was well into my interest in math and physics, and I was very inspired by the work ethic my mother showed. I remember in high school I started to really think about what it would take to get a PhD in physics or any STEM field. I asked my mother how she managed to with all of us on her plate as well. She told me “I just never give up no matter how many rejections I get, and I get a lot. I didn't have a mentor, I was just motivated by wanting to give you guys a decent life.”, I was amazed. I pried and asked, “well how do you study?”. She responded, “Well, I study when you guys are asleep…Another strategy is to just push myself a little bit harder when I feel like I can do it, but I am struggling. I will meditate and just take my time to figure out the work, even if I must read it several times and then break it down. “. Again, I was astonished. Her answers were so simple, but I still understood the hard work and dedication necessary.
My mother has impacted her field not only by being an example for young black and migrant women in America pursuing an education but also has impacted the lives of her local community. During her time in graduate school my mother volunteered with DeKalb County Board of Health and became a member of the Medical Reserve Corp. She used this network to work with the board of heath and her university at the time to help families with children who show signs of autism, with preparing themselves and their child for the proper education and benefits. After her time at the B.O.H, she then got certified in the Emergency Management (CERT) Community Emergency Response Team. By the time I finished high school she had gotten her PhD in the field of epidemiology. She did her dissertation on the impact HIV and AIDS have today on various communities and what we can do to better understand this epidemic. During COVID she worked for Kaiser and helped along with other heroes to research the case data for the state of California. Today she is a senior health scientist, in charge of research for CVS and other related medical industries. Most of her work today relates to data science, a lot about the impact of various medical diagnostics.
