Wheatley

Toshikah Wheatley of Belair School, Manchester, said "setting her priorities right" earned her nine nine ones in the 2006 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

"When I got the news, I had mixed feelings, I started crying and screaming," she told The Gleaner yesterday.

Toshikah, who recently turned 17, said she was surprised when she got her results because the science subjects were not easy and her weakest subject was Spanish.

The young achiever told The Gleaner that she could not have performed so well without her mother, Auralee Wheatley, "front of house manager" at Bloomfield Great House Restaurant in Mandeville.

"She is my biggest inspiration because she is a single mother and she worked hard to ensure that there was food on the table and money for school," the confident young woman said.

Toshikah also noted that her mother's boss, Pam Grant, believed in her and that also pushed her to do well.

While at lower school at Belair, she was the vice-president for the fund-raising committee and the student council and a member of the Key and Spanish clubs. She was also a member of her school's year book committee and was involved in Latin dancing. The well-rounded student also assisted with the school challenge quiz team.

She will be starting sixth form at Belair tomorrow where she will pursue the sciences at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations level. The teenager said she was concerned that so many young girls are getting pregnant and are not taking school work seriously.

Toshikah got ones in biology, physics, english literature, english language, chemistry, principles of accounts, mathematics, Spanish, and information technology.