GoodHeart | Educators mark birthdays with master’s graduation milestone
Published:Saturday | January 24, 2026 | 12:06 AMNyoka Manning/Gleaner Writer
For most people, a birthday is marked with cake, candles, and quiet reflection. For Renard Raymond and Cleopatra Young, their most recent birthdays were celebrated in academic regalia. On the same day they added another year to their lives, both educators reached a major milestone, graduating with master’s degrees in educational leadership and management at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, on Saturday, January 17.
MEET RENARD RAYMOND
For 44-year-old Renard Raymond, the moment was nothing short of miraculous. “I felt the new date would be [on] my birthday,” he said. And, when the confirmation email arrived, emotion overtook him.
The day was shared with a sister who has become his emotional anchor, two nieces, and a close church sister who attended in support of another graduate.
“My only regret is not having my mother there,” he said softly. “I wanted her to see this.”
Raised in the rural community of David’s Hill, St Andrew, as the youngest of eight children to a single mother, his early life was defined by hardship.
“Poverty knew no boundaries,” Raymond said. “There were days when we barely had enough, but my mother did everything she could to hold us together.”
After graduating from Mavis Bank High School without any CXC passes, he drifted between jobs and was uncertain of his future.
“When I left high school without any subjects, it felt like my life had already been written off,” he admitted.
That uncertainty deepened in 2010 with the death of his mother.
“Losing her turned my world upside down,” he said. “She was my main support, my confidante, my everything. When she died, I felt like I lost my direction too.”
By his own admission, education came late. In 2011, standing at a crossroads, Raymond made a quiet but life-altering vow to God: “If my 30th birthday comes and I don’t see a positive change in my life [then] I will be giving up on life.”
Instead, opportunity arrived in the form of a job as a district constable with the Ministry of National Security, despite his limited qualifications. From there, determination took over.
He pursued his studies relentlessly, earning certificates, completing five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, and an associate degree in business administration, before being accepted into the University of Technology, Jamaica after six attempts. Teaching had never been part of his plan, but life, he said, had other ideas.
“I believe it was a calling,” Raymond shared, recalling how even strangers often asked if he was a teacher long before he became one.
After completing his Bachelor of Education in 2022, he enrolled at The University of the West Indies, Mona, for his master’s degree. When graduation was postponed from its usual November date following Hurricane Melissa, he sensed something unusual.
Today, Raymond hopes to use his degree to strengthen schools in under-served communities, mentor young people, especially boys, empower adults through education, and eventually lecture at the tertiary level.
His message to young people is firm and compassionate, ambition without action is only a dream.
“If I could rise from little to nothing,” he said, “then others can too.”
MEET CLEOPATRA YOUNG
For Cleopatra Young, turning 38 while wearing a graduation gown felt like standing at the crossroads of memory, loss, resilience, and quiet triumph.
“I don’t think I will ever forget that feeling,” she told GoodHeart. “It wasn’t just a birthday. It felt like a personal renewal … a celebration of how far I’ve come.”
She grew up between two worlds: rural Coleyville near the Gourie Forest Reserve, and Grey Ground in Mandeville.
Like Raymond, her birthday graduation was deeply emotional.
When she walked across the graduation stage last Saturday with a master’s degree in education, specialising in educational leadership and management, the moment carried a weight far beyond academic achievement.
“Initially, my younger brother was the only family member there to support me, but two cousins were able to pop in at the last minute after the ceremony had already started. My immediate relatives were unable to attend as they are overseas. It felt really good to have their support, especially since this was a moment I had always hoped my dad could witness, but I lost him a few years ago,” she reflected.
Her path to the degree was anything but easy. Balancing full-time work, side hustles, and graduate studies meant relying on little more than discipline and endurance.
“There were nights when I questioned how I was going to manage it all,” she admitted. “But I kept telling myself, I could not be telling my students to pursue their goals and do the opposite myself.”
That sense of accountability became her anchor. Her mother, family and friends formed her emotional backbone, while lecturers such as Dr Ann Marie Wilmot provided academic guidance that she describes as “steady and affirming”.
“They reminded me to keep going, even when the journey felt challenging,” she added.
Education, for Young, is more than a profession. It is purpose.
“I am in the field of education because I want to make a real impact. I know the potency of education and that it is the gateway to both national and individual development. I hope to use the knowledge I have gained to contribute to educational leadership and improve the lives of people in my community and across Jamaica,” she expressed.
Graduating on her birthday transformed a personal milestone into a lifelong marker of endurance.
“It added emotional depth to everything,” she said. “It turned the achievement into a memory I will carry for the rest of my life.”
Her advice to young people is simple, firm and unromanticised: “Go out and do it, whatever path empowers you. Pursuing education and investing in yourself is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. Knowledge is empowering, transformative, and stays with you for life.”