NCB Foundation helps further student’s med-school wish

TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Dane Warren has known struggle for most of his life. After losing his father at the age of two, Warren’s mother struggled to make ends meet for her family on her minimal salary as a cashier. Needless to say, his journey through the education system as a youth was extremely challenging, both academically and financially. However, Warren’s fiery passion for succeeding in his life and not letting his financial situation hold him back enabled him to stay focused on his goals and worked tirelessly towards a bright future.

The beginning of Warren’s high-school career started off rocky. He was ranked among the lowest-performing students in grades seven and eight and had a really tough time. However, fast-forward to the end of his high-school career when Warren had managed to finish among the top academic achievers, securing nine Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects and eight Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subjects, all while being heavily involved in co-curricular activities – four ‘School Challenge Quiz’ seasons, deputy head boy duties, student council president, Energy Conservation Club, Cadet Corps, and the list goes on.

DETERMINED TO START

After his success in high school, Warren was ready to transition to the next step of his academic journey – university. “I was accepted to The University of the West Indies to study chemistry, but with my mother’s small cashier salary, my only option was the Students’ Loan Bureau. But I couldn’t secure my guarantors. The semester start was fast approaching, and my application was incomplete and unsubmitted,” Warren recalled. “But I was determined to start, so I showed up for classes [in] September 2014. I remember my mum saying, ‘That’s crazy, Dane!’ because she didn’t have the money for me to take a bus to school, much less pay my school fee. Regardless, I began my UWI journey. I knew I’d figure it out along the way.”

And that he did. From catching rides with mentors and lecturers to and from his home in Old Harbour, to sleeping on the floor in his friends’ dorm or on chairs in the library, to borrowing his friend’s login to study for his exams. All the while, unpaid tuition was mounting, and he was behind in his studies. To turn things around, Warren reached out to a professor, whom he then ended up working with to earn some money towards his tuit ion while also advancing his studies. He ended up being able to eventually save enough to move onto one of the halls, buy himself a laptop and all his necessary supplies, travel overseas and even contribute to a paper published alongside his professor. He was an undergraduate student with two journal entries and had travelled to Mexico as part of the American Chemical Society. All huge accomplishments to be extremely proud of.

FINANCIAL BLESSING

Currently, Warren is a third-year medical student pursuing a degree at Texila American University in Guyana. He graduated with his bachelor of science in chemistry and psychology from the University of the West Indies. Unfortunately, his financial struggles have followed him to Guyana, where he has struggled to pay his tuition in order to advance to the fourth year. To quell this, he teaches CSEC classes online to earn extra money where he can. Luckily for him, a financial blessing came at the end of 2021, in the form of a $300,000 gift towards his studies from the NCB Foundation’s Grant A Wish Programme. Warren is the top recipient for this year’s education category. His relentless push towards greatness, no matter the circumstances, is a large part of what secured his ranking.

“I didn’t expect this!” he remarked. At the time of applying for the programme, Warren owed $405,000 in tuition. With the Grant A Wish prize money covering just over 70 per cent of his debt, Warren was more optimistic, hopeful, and secure going into 2022.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the entire NCB Foundation for this initiative and this gift. It came at a time when I had limited options and no way out of clearing my final payment for Year 3.”

Warren is among hundreds of other recipients in NCB Foundation’s annual Grant A Wish Programme, which has seen donations of $50 million to date to individuals and institutions across Jamaica. Last year, wishes were granted to the tune of $15 million to organisations and individuals in need that fall within the categories of medical, frontline workers, education, community projects and micro-entrepreneurship.