St Cuthbert’s Mission girl who bagged 21 CSEC subjects aspires to become a politician

At just age 17, Roshani Razack is already doing great things for herself. Hailing from the Amerindian community of St Cuthbert’s Mission in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Razack was able to bag 21 subjects at the 2020 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
This teenager did all of this while attending Richard Ishmael Secondary School, which is not among the top-performing schools in Guyana. This ambitious young lady is studying engineering at the University of Guyana while pursuing an online law course at Perking University.

She is not limiting herself to just one career path. In this regard, she is working towards being a petroleum engineer, lawyer, and hopefully one day, a politician.
Coming out of that small community where opportunities are limited, she gained a scholarship from the Amerindian Affairs Ministry right after completing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) which saw her being awarded a place at the Diamond Secondary School.
Describing this as a huge and transitional task, she added, “It allowed me to gain a place at Richard Ishmael Secondary (because of the geographic location) and the place I was staying at was located just in the latter and wider areas of Georgetown making it convenient. At just 11 years old, coming into a new environment, leaving all the people I knew my entire life was my first challenge on the path to which I’m on.”
According to her, during her first term at the school back in 2015, she cried to her family each day to return home. But they would always remind her of the reasons she was making such a huge sacrifice. She now posits that being placed at the city school was like putting her exactly where she needed to be and where she belonged.
“For the five years, after I had gotten settled in, I’ve never felt like I was alone in pursuing this, the unwavering support I’ve received from my teachers was mind-blowing. It was as though I had a family at that school. Mind you, I knew no one there when I had started. “

Breaking barriers
Razack related that previously persons had “many absurd” comments to make about her alma mater being a B grade school. In this regard, she emphasises that it matters not the school you attend, but whether you set your mind to excel and break barriers.
She added, “Here I made the first attempt in changing that: writing 21 CSEC subjects at a junior secondary school and becoming successful at each of them as compared to the other top schools this year who would have had flaws relating to their results in this year’s examinations.” Many persons believe that writing such a large number of subjects is a difficult task.
Razack said it was not. “It was about breaking the barriers of limitations utilising the resources that were presented to me at that time. It was about challenging and changing the stigma attached to the capabilities of junior secondary schools in this decade. I’m not saying it wasn’t rife with many day-to-day struggles of getting tasks completed, dealing with my mental health, and at the same time with the COVID-19 hitting the Caribbean in March 2020.”
“The challenge of having to write the biggest examination of our time in the middle of a pandemic. Noting that before examinations we had no school or class interaction for five months, but gladly through God’s willingness, we persevered. It was never a situation of proving myself, but it was one to depict my level of all-roundedness,” the aspiring lawyer continued.

Ambassador
Razack holds many ambassadorial titles.
These include: Country Representative for Global Youth Model United Nations, Global Peace Ambassador at Global Peace Chain; Country Director and Representative at the International Crisis Summit; Caribbean Youth Ambassador; Global Youth Parliamentarian; Changemaker at UNITE 2030; United Nations Caribbean Women advocate; Deputy Coordinator of the International Youth Summit and 14 other global titles.
She is also the holder of many global awards.
Her advice to others is “you honestly need to be aggressive about what is it you want to achieve, there is no time to allow setbacks to diminish or hinder your progression. Once you know what you want, understand why you want it. Ensure that what you want is something you’re passionate about and something you’re willing to do and not just something you think you have to do.
“It has to be something that doesn’t make you sleep at night because you’re dreaming and working on it. It has to be something that when you wake up, excites you or let it be something that makes you so angry that you know you have to do something about it. It’s important to know why you’re doing what you’re doing and know why it must be done.”
“Because jumping from the “what” to the “do” is meaningless when you don’t know why. Because when it gets hard and when you’re giving up and making mistakes, your mistakes are a reflection of you, but victory is a shared benefit. And when you lose momentum, and you didn’t win your first race, if there is no “why”, then you can’t try again.”

Powerful tool
Although she admitted it has been a great struggle carrying out her duties under the many titles, she has mastered finding a balance between academics and co-curricular activities. Razack explained that while academic papers are great, life itself is a long process of academia. She described the mind as a “powerful tool”.
“Your mind is a powerful tool, so I’d always say to never put a limit to what you want to accomplish. You are the only person who has the ability and capability to stop or hinder your progression, no one else, no other situation but you,” the teenager related.
For her, she is an ally, someone who inspires others, especially from hinterland communities.
“Even though we are marginalised and we often lack resources and the correct opportunities, I know if presented with them, Indigenous youth and the youth of Guyana generally will be unstoppable.” According to her, her success derived from the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Only in her case, it took a village, a school, and strangers whom she now calls family.
In closing, she extended heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported her throughout her secondary school life including her immediate family members; the Hinterland Scholarship Division; teachers of Richard Ishmael Secondary and Morgan’s Learning Centre, her mentors; therapists, and even those who offered words of encouragement.