Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Tamian Beckford, of Meadow-brook High School. Tamian is a ward of the state who passed eight CXC (CSEC) subjects and is president-elect of the National Secondary Schools Council. - CONTRIBUTED
TAMIAN BECKFORD, a ward of the state, defied the odds against him when he was elected president-elect of the National Secondary Schools Council in May.
A former student of Excelsior High School, Tamian also graduated last year with eight Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, usually referred to as CXCs.
Now a student at Meadow-brook High, Tamian is pursuing subjects at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examin-ation level.
But all of these achievements did not come easy.
A LOT OF TROUBLE
Following the death of his mother at age 10, and the migration of his father, Tamian began roaming the streets and got into a lot of trouble. His elder sibling, he said, took him to a police station from which he was later sent to a place of safety at age 11.
He told The Gleaner that, while at the Stony Hill Place of Safety, he got the news that he had passed the Grade Six Achievement Test. Tamian said he was then placed in the Jamaica National Children's Home, where he still resides today.
"Life was rough because you didn't want anybody to know that you were living in a children's home and I wished I had Mommy and Daddy around," he told The Gleaner yesterday.
While growing up at the children's home, Tamian said he felt neglected and thought that nobody cared. "I cried a lot. It was my way of dealing with things because I felt better when I did it," he said.
In fourth form at Excelsior, Tamian stole some equipment from the chemistry lab and was threatened with expulsion.
"It was only at that time I realised that school was the only thing that I had and if I lost school I didn't know what to do," he said
Also, one of his teachers told him that he would amount to nothing good and he was determined to prove him wrong. The teenager said he decided to run for president of the students' council and won some 1,400 of 1,900 votes.
An avid lover of politics, Tamian hopes to pursue a degree in political science.
"If I can become a leader and have some say in my country, I would have impacted on the life of people in Jamaica," he said.
Tamian advised youngsters who find themselves in a similar situation to the one he was in to find someone who can motivate them.
"Keep on fighting and do not give up," he said.
