Student on poor relief strides into law school

A major driving force behind Shanique Sommerville's quest to become an attorney-at-law is to put her community, Peggy Barry district in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, on the map. She also has a steely determination to make her family proud.

Sommerville, 23, already has a law degree under her belt, and is set to enrol at the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS) where she will read for a practising certificate in order to become a lawyer.

"Basically, where I grew up in Peggy Barry I think you don't really have a lot of persons coming out of that community doing something exceptional or doing something great. I just want to put our name on the map," Sommerville told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Parliamentarians on Tuesday took note of her name after Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie named her as one of the beneficiaries of assistance from the Poor Relief Department, who have "gone on to be shining examples of excellence".

Sommerville has been a beneficiary since 2016, when she was discontinued from the PATH programme. In addition to being provided with grants, she has received food supplies, uniform and school material through the programme. Sommerville said that her grandmother, Dawn Warren, who operates as a vendor, and her father, Desmond Sommerville, a taxi driver, have not covered all her needs for school.

Grateful for every

"I am grateful for every assistance I have received, and even though it's poor relief and there is a stigma with it, I mean, if you are here and you are willing to help me reach my goal, I will accept it. I am just honoured," she said.

"Now I am getting myself mentally prepared for NMLS, and I am hoping for the best. When I am finished, I have intentions to stay in my country and develop Westmoreland," she said, proudly.

The Manning's School past student began repaying the investment in her by copping 10 subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level and eight passes at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination level. Subsequent to leaving sixth form, Sommerville received much-needed funding to complete her law degree at The University of the West Indies, Mona. In 2018, she was awarded a full scholarship through the Josephine 'Lilly' Wolfe Memorial Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship, which covered tuition, boarding and books, is named in honour of a former student of the school who was murdered in Negril in 2015.

She expressed excitement at being awarded a full scholarship to study an area she is completely oblivious about, but said she knew she had a goal in mind to make her community and her story be known. She added that she faced challenges, as her confidence as a student was tested as she felt as though she was behind in her classes. A constant source of motivation for Sommerville through her tenure at the Faculty of Law was her late mother, Cheva Newton, who died when Sommerville was 10 years old.

"Everything I do, I bear my mother in mind. She was very young when she died, she was just 25 turning 26. She really didn't get to live life and then she had me young, so she really didn't get to experience life. And now I am basically at the age that she died, and getting all of this exposure, I feel like I'm not just doing it for me, but I am doing it for her and for my grandmother," she said.