Nzinga Dyke beats the odds to get family’s first university degree

After graduating from Ocho Rios High School in St Ann with 10 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination passes under her belt, Nzinga Dyke landed a job in a Trelawny supermarket as a cashier.

Dyke, 18, at the time, was glad for the opportunity to earn, but she was not enjoying her job. She wanted more and decided she would not settle.

"I worked at the supermarket for a few months after my graduation, and one day something hit me. I was just like, 'You know what, me nuh fi deh yah suh. This is not going to work out.' ... I was thankful but I felt like I was being held back and not being at my potential," Dyke told THE STAR.

She had the desire to pursue tertiary education but knew her parents could not afford to send her. No member of her family has ever attended university but Dyke was determined to be the first. The Pineapple, St Ann, native reached out to an aunt who lived in San Diego, California in the United States of America (USA), and told her that she wanted to enrol in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

"I had no idea how I would go to UCLA but I told her and she said, 'You can come up here, however, you are going to have to work very hard because you're going to have to find your own place and do all of that'," Dyke related.

Though scared by the daunting prospects of living abroad and carrying her own burden, Dyke, who spent time in a foster home in Buff Bay, Portland, decided that she would take on the challenge. She left Jamaica in 2017 and stayed with her aunt for about two months before venturing out on her own.

"I was working three jobs and going to school full-time," said Dyke, who had made a return to the USA, having lived there for six years before returning to the island at 10 years old. She held fast to the mantra, 'Born for Greatness', and immersed herself in hard work, which has paid dividends. The overcomer told THE STAR that her late grandmother's words served as a major source of encouragement.

"She begged me to get an education and I always remember her saying that and my family, we nuh come from nothing. I'm coming from four generation of Rastas, we nuh really come from anything in terms of higher level education, so I knew that I had to be the first one in my family to do it. I had to, I had no choice, I'm the firstborn for both my parents," Dyke told THE STAR.

She is now basking in her recent success of graduating from the top-ranked public university in the USA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication last weekend. Her latest academic triumph adds to two associate degrees she has been awarded by San Diego City College.

The first-generation graduate said her parents are immensely proud of her achievement, indicating that her father was so happy that he was moved to tears.

"This is a great accomplishment and, of course, I am proud of myself, but we nuh really start nothing yet, me just a start so just wait," she said.

Dyke has her eyes set on reading for her master's degree in project management or organisational leadership as she hopes to become the director of communications for a beauty, fashion or tech company.