For 2025 BOOST Scholarship recipient Jody-Ann Stephens, education has long been more than a profession; it is a route to opportunity, growth and change.

Raised in Portland Cottage, Clarendon, she knows the constraints many young Jamaicans face. As a child, she could not afford much of what her peers took for granted. Even so, she focused on her studies, seeing education as the surest way out of poverty.

Reflecting on her journey, she said, “Education was my pathway out of poverty. It gave me hope, purpose, and the belief that my circumstances did not have to determine my future.”