18-year-old earns partial scholarship to Howard University: Hailey Jeffers gets closer to her dreams

HAILEY Jeffers has big dreams. She hopes to make a major impact in the field of paediatric neurology in Trinidad and Tobago, and she is now one step closer to doing so. The 18-year-old Naparima Girls’ High School student has earned a partial scholarship to Howard University in the US to study biology.

In an interview on June 17, the Marabella native told Newsday that while her first love was always music, she eventually became intrigued by science.

“I started off with the steelpan and then maybe a year later, I got into piano, then guitar and voice lessons,” she recalled.

“But when I began secondary school and I got exposed to a lot of the wonderful teachers that we have there, I really kind of grew that love for the science, especially biology.”

In 2023, she earned 11 grade ones in CSEC exams in physics, chemistry, biology, English A, English B, additional mathematics, mathematics, music, Spanish, French and social studies.

Typically, students do seven or eight compulsory subjects. So why did she opt for so many?

Laughing, she said, “A lot of people tried to warn me against doing all of them because they knew how stressful it could have been...I ended up having to do both French and music on the outside, so that meant after school, sometimes on weekends, I’d have classes.”

She said it took a lot of sacrifice but she got it done.

As for CAPE unit one, she achieved grade ones in pure mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and communication studies.

She recalled having to “unlearn” a lot of basics she had previously learnt.

“So that was a bit of a difficult transition…But I also think that, for some reason, the higher-level math was easier for me to grasp than when I did it at the lower level.”

She praised her family, especially her mother, Wendy Jeffers, for her support, which kept her grounded even during the toughest times.

“Sometimes I would have back-to-back lessons after school until 9 pm, and then I would still have to do homework and study…She would be up late nights working, too, so it would be two of us.

“If I felt like crying, she was there to support me. She also supported me 100 per cent financially (for) all of my lessons, and she is somebody who’s very dedicated and hardworking.”

She said both she and her mother had looked at possible universities even before she even entered secondary school.

“I wanted to do a roadmap as to what my career (journey) would look like from high school until after university.”

One such consideration was Howard University.

“And my brother actually went to Howard. He was a Howard graduate and valedictorian years ago. So I really felt drawn to their sense of community and pride and also their excellence. I always knew that that was my number one choice.”

She said the application process was a lengthy one as she had to write “several essays” for both Howard and at least three other schools she also applied to.

“It took a lot of long hours and then mummy and I kept looking over them, tweaking them, making sure my voice came out in the essays…”

It was last Christmas Eve, she said, that they got the good news.

“They had said (the acceptance list) would come out between December 23 and 24. Mummy was just anxious all day (On December 23), and I went to bed rather late…But around 2 am (on December 24), she came and said some people checked and got their acceptance (letters), so I went to check my portal and it was this letter opening up with confetti all over the screen,” she recalled gleefully.

She said while her mother got a bit emotional, she felt calm.

“I was like, ‘This is it. It’s finally here.’ But I also felt this big sense of relief, and mummy just hugged me for a long time.”

She will begin her bachelor’s degree in biology in August, which is around the same time results of her unit two CAPE exams will be out.

The programme will serve as a gateway to study medicine, a field she said she has always been interested in.

“I had a relative who was born with birth defects and he died at five years old. He had to seek treatment abroad for surgery for his complications, and I always wondered – What if we had more resources here? How many more children could be saved or could be allowed to live normal lives like other children their age?”

“I want to do research in that field because I want to come back to TT and try to develop it further…We have a lot of underdeveloped fields (within medicine), specifically for children and certain types of surgeries. So that's definitely something I want to focus on evolving, especially when it comes to paediatrics.”

While excited, she admitted she is also very nervous about her new adventure.

“It's a new place…I've been to this place before but this is a different circumstance. I've never lived away from home before.

“I'll have company and make new friends and a new community. But it will definitely be a completely different experience that I'll have to navigate.”