There’s a famous saying attributed to the late Bruce Lee: “The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.” Its central premise is that the only thing that separates regular people from truly extraordinary people is investment. And it’s an excellent parallel for the experiences of Matthew Burke, Okeem Brathwaite, and Michael Straughn, a group of UWI students who attended South East Port-of-Spain Secondary School (SEPOSS).
Burke is a student of the BSc Accounting programme, while Brathwaite and Straughn are pursuing Engineering degrees—Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer respectively—at The UWI St Augustine.
For those unfamiliar with SEPOSS, it was opened in 1968 with an address from then Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams. His investment in the school was borne of his care for the south-east Port-of-Spain area, having been its Member of Parliament, as well as his profound belief in widening access to secondary education. In his address, he urged its students, “The future is yours—go forward and meet it boldly.”
But the school, like many others, has had its share of upheaval and negative public attention. In November 2019, a shooting near the school caused a stray bullet to pierce the walls of a classroom. This halted teaching at the school as measures had to be taken to ensure the safety of its students and staff. The school resumed its operations in January 2020¬, but by March, the students were faced with another, more universal situation: the COVID-19 pandemic.
In spite of this, Burke, Brathwaite and Straughn’s stories overwhelmingly highlighted SEPOSS as a school that took what they were willing to put in and multiplied it. “South East is a very nice place to be,” Burke remarked. “The teachers have a better chance to look out for you [because of the school’s size], especially if you cooperate with them. The whole experience there is really up to you to decide what you’re going to have.” “The teaching level is high for the most part,” Brathwaite stated. “Once you go to the classes, you get high-level teaching. And we also have Form 6, so it’s a complete seven-year experience.”
This impression crystallised for him when his favourite teacher, Ms Niles, devoted after-hours time to assist him with his studies.
The school also helped them to get into hockey, though how they got there was a bit of a happy accident. “The reason Michael joined hockey in the first place [was because] he got in trouble in school and that was something they told him he had to do to deal with his problem,” Brathwaite recalled.
It was the linchpin event that opened the friends’ eyes to sport. Burke joined soon after for unconventional reasons: to escape Drama class. When second term came, Brathwaite joined the sport as well.
That was nine years ago, and they’ve been playing ever since. Now, the three are members of UWI St Augustine’s hockey team.
Despite the challenges of an environment where their learning is more self-directed than ever, Burke, Brathwaite and Straughn know that they’re strong enough to make it; and that is in no small part because of the lessons they learned from their time at their alma mater, and the friends they made along the way.
This was but one way that their school experiences helped to shape their current lives as university students. During his school days, Straughn encountered a teacher with whom he was seldom on the same page. Out of this, he learned the importance of strategy in handling difficult situations. This mindset, along with his preparation for managing workloads as a secondary school student, helps him handle the demands of his degree. While he sometimes wonders if his trajectory might have been different had he attended Queen’s Royal College (his first-choice secondary school) for all or at least part of his education, he recognises that he was still able to make his school years productive and meaningful.
Brathwaite’s trajectory and his aspirations, by contrast, were supported through his access to science subjects at the Form 6 level. With his passes, he was able to get into the Mechanical Engineering programme, a step towards his goal of increasing the engineering capacity of his father’s construction company. He also discovered his desire to play for the national hockey team.
Burke’s experience helped him overcome the anxiety that once caused him to skip drama classes at school. During his Form 6 years, he assisted onstage with school assemblies, which helped him get past his stage fright and overall shyness. Now, he aspires to become someone who can help others professionally and otherwise.
As university students, they find themselves scaling back their involvement in other activities to keep up with their studies. Despite the challenges of an environment where their learning is more self-directed than ever, Burke, Brathwaite and Straughn know that they’re strong enough to make it; and that is in no small part because of the lessons they learned from their time at their alma mater, and the friends they made along the way. We must imagine that Dr Williams would be proud to see them doing exactly as he asked: going forward to meet the future boldly.
