Future entrepreneur bags eight CAPE passes

SHE IS currently enrolled at The University of the West Indies (UWI) pursuing chemistry. This is merely a few months after picking up her Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results at York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St Ann.

The 18-year-old’s haul was an impressive eight subjects – chemistry, biology and physics at grades one and two, along with communication studies and Caribbean studies.

Just two years earlier, in 2020, she had graduated from St Hilda’s Diocesan High with eight subjects also, along with another she did on her own, for a total of nine Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects that year – Spanish, mathematics, English A, English B, agricultural science, chemistry, biology, history and physics.

In 15 of those 17 subjects, she earned a grade one, and the others were at grade two. Brianna Levy is simply brilliant.

Despite her academic mastery, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Ocho Rios teen. With St Hilda’s limiting students to eight subjects per sitting for CSEC, she was forced to do physics elsewhere, so she enrolled in evening classes at Ocho Rios High School.

“It was really a challenge because to take a two-year (physics) course and cram it in just one year is very hard, plus balancing my eight other subjects,” young Levy told The Gleaner.

“Also, at the time I was a Seventh-day Adventist and lab classes were on Saturdays. I couldn’t go so I had to do it like in the Easter break ... like all of them during the Easter break and I still had my eight subjects to focus on.”

At one point Levy had a very important physics test to do, but it clashed with her internal exams at St Hilda’s. She decided to make physics her priority, but fortuitously, COVID-19 intervened.

“On the day I was supposed to do the physics test, I heard on the news that school would be closing for two weeks because of COVID. If it wasn’t for COVID, I would probably fail my other exams because I didn’t touch them. So, COVID was really a blessing and a curse for me.”

Now attending UWI, Levy is all into chemistry, even though it was physics that she was initially chasing.

She explained, “I decided to pursue chemistry in university because even though I’m doing all the sciences, I just really have a deep love for chemistry.”

Not only that, Levy has decided that after she gets her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry, she will venture into entrepreneurship.

“I have also decided to pursue my career path in chemistry, as in the future I want to become a cosmetic chemist, specialising in the field of skin care,” she said. But before pursuing her dream as a chemist and launching Jamaica’s latest skincare brand, the aspiring businesswoman will “give back two years of service in the classroom”.

“I am very committed to nation building and I am happy to know that I will be able to help fill the gap in the classroom for science teachers,” she explained.

Levy’s success though is not all her doing. Her mother, Anisa Wilson-Smith, a guidance counsellor, personal and professional development coach, among other things, would have provided the ideal parental support and guidance. Naturally, she was elated with her daughter’s continued show of excellence.

“I am feeling really, really happy, overjoyed and deeply satisfied with her performance,” Wilson-Smith said.

According to her, Brianna has the right attitude to work and with humility and self-discipline, she has developed the right mindset to do well at anything.

“My role really was to help provide that emotional support and encouragement and to help to motivate her. I taught her to believe in herself and her ability and that is something pushed in her head on a daily basis. To believe in yourself is very, very important, it’s at the foundation of all successes,” Wilson-Smith stressed.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com