Dad’s murder pushes Immaculate student to Caribbean academic excellence
Published:Monday | February 13, 2023 | 12:54 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Ask standout student Thalia Grant where she hails from and she’ll say “a lot of communities”.
That quip captures the bumpy journey of struggle she and her mom Sherine Bucknor have taken over the last 13 years following the murder of the teenager’s father.
But the toll of that loss appears to have steeled the now-19-year-old to become the region’s top performer for business studies for 2022 at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
Grant recalls how her family moved house frequently, because of their financial challenges, but she credits her mother for inspiring her to hurdle mounting obstacles.
“... I just tried to keep the motivation, keep my spirit up, and studying was always something that could take my mind off anything that was going on in life. So I just focused and this was the outcome,” Grant told The Gleaner Thursday after receiving her award at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Youth from acting Chief Education Officer Dr Kasan Troupe.
“Him (my father) passing away just gave my mommy and I a push factor to work even harder.”
Bucknor acknowledges the difficulties they faced in the aftermath of Grant’s dad’s death, but praised her daughter for sticking to their plan.
That included buckling down and realising that it was just the two of them.
Bucknor said that Grant, who attended Immaculate Conception High School, was extremely self-motivated and goal-oriented.
“Even with the passing, she just didn’t miss a beat. So we just kept on supporting her, pushing her, and she hasn’t disappointed. She has worked hard,” the mom said.
“... I don’t have to push her to do anything when it comes on to her schoolwork, and she does not let anything distract her - nothing at all.”
The odyssey to excellence started at Lannaman’s Prep School, where her mom said she performed well academically and showed the potential of “a gifted child”.
In an interview with The Gleaner immediately after collecting her award from the Caribbean Examinations Council, Grant, an introvert of sorts, said she felt “surprised, extremely humbled, and grateful”.
Given that she left high school months ago, Grant said she had even forgotten about the honour and was surprised when called by the education ministry.
Since September last year, she has been focusing on her studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona, where she is reading for a bachelor of science degree in economics.
Grant said she fell in love with economics in Grade 10 at Immaculate.
She scored distinctions in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects she sat in 2020, and notched straight A profiles at CAPE in 2021 and 2022.
Achieving that feat has been a mixed bag of factors: “prayer, most of all”, “extensive studying”, “amazing teachers”, and “study groups”.
Equally as excited as Bucknor at the awards ceremony was Grant’s best friend, Cam-Ron Davis, who has been part of her support system in recent years.
“I know how hard she worked for this, although she doesn’t say that. You can see that she really puts in a lot of work. When I’m there sleeping away, she’s studying, so I’m very proud of her,” Davis told The Gleaner.
“I’ve seen Thalia first-hand studying, and we would go on Zoom calls and study together, because we did the same subjects. It’s just really amazing being able to witness her getting this award,” she added.