Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
Seventeen-year-old Yindra Mollings-Puentes recently graduated from Southfield High School in Michigan in the United States, with a 3.92 grade point average and the honour of being class valedictorian. In the fall, the pathologist's daughter will attend the University of Detroit Mercy on a full scholarship worth US$90,000.
Yindra will be majoring in pre-med or biology in preparation for her life's goal of becoming a doctor, like her mother.
Speaking with Outlook recently, mother Clara Puentes-Mollings said, "I feel so good. The entire family is thankful to the Jamaican education system because it was her base. Yindra recognised how rigorous the system was here. In Southfield, she was way ahead of her peers."
Yindra, who was born in Cuba, was taken - along with sister Cira - to Jamaica by mother Clara and her father, Cuban-Jamaican Gualberto Mollings, when she was seven.
None of the girls spoke the language then, but they were fortunate to be placed in a school in which the teachers facilitated easy learning.
EXCELLENT GRADES
The girls attended school at Mico Practising Primary and Infant School where their father also found a job as a teacher. In no time, Yindra was speaking English. She did well in her examinations and moved on to the St. Andrew High School where, her mother notes, she got excellent grades.
Classes at St. Andrew were rigorous. Yindra was exposed to 14 subjects each school year, including three science classes.
Then, when she was 15, her mother, who was by then divorced from the girl's father, decided to take her to the United States to complete her high school education and get a scholarship for college.
In Jamaica, the family notes, there are virtually no scholarship opportunities, and "only the best of the best get the opportunity to get money for college."
With her eye on the long-term benefits for her child, Clara Puentes-Mollings handed over her daughter to her in-laws in Southfield, Michigan.
Yindra lived with her father's sister, Barbara Smith, and the Smith family.
In Southfield, instead of 14 subjects, she now had only six to worry about. Although it was far less work than she was used to, Yindra became uneasy and did not know what to do with her spare time. It was also hard for her to make friends.
After a year in Southfield, Yindra moved to Virginia to be with her father. After a semester in Virginia, she and her dad moved to Orlando. After a semester in Orlando, she moved to Tampa to live with another aunt before deciding she wanted to return to Southfield and graduate with people she knew. At this school where her academic record was near perfect, she was chosen as valedictorian.
PRAISES FOR HER MOTHER
In her valedictory speech, Yindra said: "The hardest years of my life were spent jumping from house to house and from school to school, not sure what should happen next. My mom's heart and love were always with me, watching me, urging me and giving me the power to tread any path, and overcome any obstacle in my way.
"Even through my loneliness and confusion I was able to see that the only way out was to give school my all, and to do my best at every single thing set out before me. She told me she believed in me, and told me that I was becoming a superwoman in her eyes too. She became catalyst for my very own metamorphosis.
"I think back and my mind blurs. I've experienced two different languages, three different countries, four different high schools, four different states and four different households due to life's circumstances. I can't believe the fact that I'm standing here in front of you today.
"In order to reach my full potential, my mother was willing to sacrifice being with me during my most formative years. I will tell you where I truly come from. I was born in the communist country of Cuba, which some may consider a Third World country. There, the food was rationed and our freedom restricted in prisons.
"I was born to parents who were gifted with intelligence, but who were soon separated by their differences. As a result, I was raised by a single mother in Jamaica. We were unable to speak English, and even in broken words she explained to me the importance of success. My mother demanded excellence and expected nothing less. She was my superwoman, the one who told me that my future depended on me. And with those words sent me to a place where my dreams could come true."
Yindra said, "Despite what was going on and how much work she did, (my mother) she made time for me and my sister and she instilled values that I'm never going to lose. I'm proud to be her daughter."
Clara Puentes-Mollings, who is now moving to Montego Bay to work (she was previously based at the Kingston Public Hospital), added," I feel the need to work for this country. I want to advertise what a Jamaican education can do."
Yindra's sister, Cira, a second form student at Campion College in Kingston, adds, "I m thankful to Jamaica."
Next summer, Yindra said she plans to return to Jamaica to visit her mother, who made a quick trip to Michigan for her high school graduation.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR OTHERS
In her graduation address, Yindra noted, "People spend half of their lives battling problems, and the other half imagining what would occur if they were able to fix them. They get punched from every side imaginable and continuously wonder if they have the strength to get back up. Well, that is life, and we are just stepping into it.
"I want to state that though we get knocked to the ground and that sometimes we believe that no one, but us is going through hardships, we still have the ability to shake the dirt off our knees and keep walking. I've learned something over the years of late night studying that no book could have taught me. I learned that although schoolwork really isn't everything in life, it is our way of climbing the ladder of success.
"I hope you face troubles with new strength, and defeat them. Confront fears with great motivation, and conquer them."
Yindra all ready for classes at St. Andrew High School for Girls.
Consultant pathologist Clara Puentes-Mollings is full of praise for the Jamaican school system which, she believes, is the cause of her daughter's track record of scholastic excellence in the United States.
'The hardest years of my life were spent jumping from house to house and from school to school, not sure what should happen next. My mom's heart and love were always with me watching me, urging me and giving me the power to tread any path, and overcome any obstacle in my way.'
