Despite his daily struggles to pay for his studies, his dream is still to become an executive chef.
Morris, a native of Spanish Town, grew up with his mother and three sisters, but his mother had to take up more than one job to ensure that Morris and his siblings could go to school, even if it meant running home each day for lunch.
Morris realised his passion for cooking early. “I was always finding ways of sprucing up the meals prepared by my mom,” he shares with Thursday Food.
The day he got the call to attend UTech remains etched in his memory. “I didn’t even have the bus fare and so was forced to defer my studies.” Morris went job hunting and started saving for his tuition. “I managed to save $60,000 from my weekly salary of $4,000.” Morris also got a student loan to finance his first two years of school, while he sold snacks to students to pay for his bus fare and lunch money. Through a summer job and selling snacks, he not only financed his third year tuition on his own but maintained high grades.
Eighteen year-old Rochelle Grindley was encouraged by her father to develop her culinary skills when she was seven years old and has not looked back.
But her culinary dreams were almost shattered when tragedy struck her family- she lost her father, the family’s major breadwinner.
Grindley was devastated. Her situation was further compounded when her mother, an agriculturist, recently retired due to ill health.
Despite these negatives Grindley dreams of owning two factories, a juice factory and a water factory, in her hometown of Santa Cruz. “I want to see more persons in my community employed,” she states.
Grindley is a past student of Santa Cruz Prep and Hampton High schools.
Annejeane Terrelonge, 26, believes that education is the only means of elevation. And with this philosophy she aggressively pursues her dream of becoming a food and beverage manager and eventually a lecturer.
Lack of finances prevented her from commencing her studies in 2000. Four years later however, after much perserverance she was accepted into the Hospitality and Tourism Management degree programme at UTech, where she now majors in food and beverage management.
But as a single mother living in an inner-city community in Kingston, Terrelonge struggled to pay her tuition and had to seek loans from the Student Loan Bureau for three consecutive years to cope.
Her school obligations also prevented her from keeping part-time jobs that would help to defray her school expenses. She said winning the Jamaica Observer Food Awards Scholarship has filled a huge gap in her financial problems.
@Jamaica Observer
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