Chevano Baker’s Story of Success
From the time he was three years old, Chevano Baker’s resilience and fortitude were being shaped in and around the Christiana market.
He, his brother and their cousin would scout for sales in the streets in order to increase the prospects for his parents who were market vendors, and secure their lunch money.
“I would sell shoe polish and matches. And we embraced it knowing that it was something we had to do. I felt that this hardship would give us a chance to beat the odds,” the 21-year-old says.
Throughout his high school years, Baker’s Saturdays were spent vending. He is the first to admit that it was not the easiest “part-time job”, as it exposed him to humiliation and crass remarks from his peers at school. However, he did not buckle under pressure.
“At school, my classmates would say all sorts of negative things, but I motivated myself and never allowed the comments to derail my goal. I was working to assist my parents along a journey that would help me and my siblings to achieve our own success. And it was a part of a bigger picture which they never saw,” he says.
Years later, Baker’s singlemindedness to achieve academically would set an example for others. He pursued an undergraduate degree in actuarial science at The University of West Indies on an open scholarship and was recently awarded the University of Birmingham and Jamaica National Foundation Legacy Scholarship.
“Looking for job opportunities and a scholarship were important for me. Therefore, when I came across the JN Legacy Scholarship during my second year at university, I paid very close attention to the criteria and I ensured that I would be a suitable candidate, based on my academic success and community involvement,” the young man relates.
The University of Birmingham and Jamaica National Foundation Legacy Scholarship, a three-year award, was launched in 2014. It affords one Jamaican student annually to study for a one-year master’s degree in a business-related field at the UK institution.
“I applied for that scholarship in my final year, when I became eligible, and was confident that I stood a chance. But actually being selected was an amazing feeling,” Baker reveals.
This son of Clones District in Manchester will leave the country later this month to begin his graduate studies in financial economics. And, while he is nervous about leaving home, he is ready to embrace the graduate studies programme.
“I am nervous because I am going to another country; but once I get there and get in the mode, I am sure I will be fine. And I am certainly going to make myself, my parents and Jamaica National proud,” Baker declares.
He reported that his parents and other family members are proud of his maturity academic success, and hope that he will continue to do well in England.
“They are extremely proud, knowing that this comes after the struggles we all had to go through. They value education and were very hands-on to ensure that I was doing well in school, and because they didn’t get the opportunity to pursue tertiary education, they wanted that for me and my siblings,” he says of his parents.
Deeply rooted in his Apostolic Christian faith, Baker plans to return to Jamaica to start another journey, charted to lead him to be governor of the Bank of Jamaica. In the short-term, he intends to lecture, pursue entrepreneurship through a company that fuses technology and agriculture, among other things.
The first Legacy Scholarship awardee, Chris-Ann Thomas, completed her graduate studies in 2015, while the 2015 recipient, Lavois Cruickshank, will to return to Jamaica at the end of September with a Master of Science Degree in Financial Economics.
Source: Jamaica Observer