Yetesha Ferguson - Ready to take on the world

Launtia Cuff, Gleaner Writer

MANDEVILLE, Manchester:HAVING JUST graduated from Northern Caribbean University (NCU) with a bachelor of science degree in management studies with a marketing emphasis, Yetesha Ferguson has said she is ready to take on the world.

This confidence is sparked by the many challenges that she has had to overcome in order to achieve the milestone of being a university graduate.

Ferguson, who had to battle a series of illnesses for which she had been in and out of hospital, said the challenges led her to a closer relationship with God, a relationship which led her to start her journey at NCU in 2005.

"I didn't have the money, but I really wanted to get a tertiary education. I started talking to the Lord, and I said, 'God, You know I have been sick, and You brought me through it. I want to go to university, I want to pursue my career. I can't do it without You. I want You to be by my side.'

"I remember I began praying, and I applied to UWI, UTech, and NCU, and I said, 'God, whichever one You provide for, that's the one I'm going to go to.'

"Lo and behold, a letter came! NCU came first, followed by the others," she told Rural Xpress.

Following the acceptance letter she received, Ferguson set off for NCU. This journey, she said, came at great sacrifice to her parents, but it was still not enough to cover the complete cost of her tuition and other expenses. Still, she left home, not knowing where she would be living or how her education would be financed. When she arrived, she met a friend to whom she explained her situation

"She said, 'You can come and live with me. I'll be graduating soon, and when I leave, you'll be able to get the space.' When I lived with her, I didn't have to pay any rent, I didn't have to buy food, and she was a student like me, but there was never a day I'd go hungry," she recalled.

A good friend

This friend, she said, was instrumental in helping her to attain her first job as a student worker at the university so she could help finance her education.

"She helped me to get a job on campus, and that's where my journey started. I started working, and I didn't have the luxury like other persons to go home on holidays. I knew there was no one to support me; my parents didn't have it. Every summer, I had to be working, and I said, 'God, You're going to help them. One day I'm going to graduate. It doesn't matter how long I'm going to have to be at NCU. I know what it is I want. I am going to work my way," she said.

In addition to working at the university, Ferguson would do other jobs to help with the expenses of university life. She is happy that there was never a time she had to compromise her moral values to pay her way.

"I would go out and MC concerts. I sang at weddings, funerals, everything, and that is how I got some money. I put it to my rent, and so forth, and I was still able to give my parents a little when they didn't have it, and I asked God not to let me drift, just to stay with Him so that I wouldn't have to go out of my way for somebody else to take care of me, and then I would have to compromise being a Christian, and I didn't have to do that," Ferguson related.

Ferguson said the highlight of it all was knowing that her parents were able to see her graduate as this was one of her biggest motivations.

"My mother was supposed to come to the graduation [but] there were financial constraints. Mrs Bignall stepped in for me - she is the VP of University Relations - and saw to it that my parents could be here for my graduation, and that was the highest point for me because I didn't want to graduate and there was no family support, but they came, and I was well supported, and my friends stood by me," Ferguson told Rural Xpress.

Although she is yet to secure employment, Ferguson said she is confident that God will work it out for her and that very soon, she will be walking into a job.

rural@gleanerjm.com