Jamaican couple builds family legacy through postgraduate success

Husband and wife, Sedrick and Antonia Leslie are still basking in the pride of reaching a major milestone together; each earning advanced degrees after a journey marked by challenges, but fuelled by faith and unwavering teamwork.

Their shared pursuit was not just about personal growth, but about laying a foundation of academic excellence for their two young daughters.

“I feel that completing graduate degrees, it sets up our family for success and I think it’s a great example to our daughters. Not many children can grow up and say that they have parents who attended grad (graduate) school,” 31-year-old Sedrick stated.

It was Sedrick who made the first step towards this goal four years ago when he left his teaching job in Bermuda, where he was living for three years, and headed to the US to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme in educational studies, with a concentration in workforce development and education, at Ohio State University (OSU).

Antonia, who worked as an auditor at multinational professional services network KPMG, followed suit with their three-month-old daughter soon after.

The initial plan, Sedrick explained, was for him to go back to school while his wife seek a job, but that did not go according to script as, despite her efforts, Antonia was unable to find work. She however used the time to invest in her own professional growth, completing up to Level II of the Chartered Financial Analyst programme online, while Sedrick worked as a graduate teaching associate at OSU, earning a small stipend.

Although they had saved for the transition, the burden of supporting a family soon depleted it, especially since Sedrick’s graduate teaching associate job at his university did not provide him with a stipend in the summer months.

“We really just stuck to it and did what we could with the little that we had. God provided, we were never hungry, we weren’t sick, we never needed to go to the hospital and couldn’t,” he explained.

Soon Sedrick, a former Mico University College student, got a job as a graduate research associate which paid a better stipend year round. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to pay their rent, and get the couple their first family car.

In Sedrick’s second year of study, Antonia decided to pursue a Master of Business Administration at the same university.

Both Sedrick and Antonia secured graduate associateships to help fund their programmes. Sedrick’s award fully covered his tuition; up to US$70,000 yearly, while Antonia’s associateship paid for half of hers, which she supplemented with a student loan.

CHALLENGE

But beyond finances, their biggest test came at home when the couple, who had been married for eight years, needed to balance the demands of parenting a toddler with the challenges of graduate school. It was manageable in the first two years when only Sedrick was enrolled and Antonia stayed at home with their daughter.

But when Antonia began her programme, the couple found themselves juggling dual academic workloads and childcare. Luckily, Sedrick’s schedule became more flexible, and they managed to share their responsibilities and make it work.

“It was honestly a tag team thing. God just worked everything out. I mean, how convenient it was that I had classes 8-3 and that’s the time when he no longer had any daytime classes. We weren’t sure how all of that was gonna work out, but it just played out perfectly,” 33-year-old Antonia said.

The couple graduated on May 4 - Antonia’s programme took two years to complete while Sedrick completed his PhD in four years.

Reflecting on their respective graduate school journeys, the couple said they were relieved it was behind them, especially for Antonia, who gave birth to another daughter seven weeks ago.

“It does feel like a weight has been lifted. I am glad that I did the programme because now I feel like it opens more opportunities for me,” said Antonia, who grew up in August Town, St Andrew.

“Especially when I reflect on the last couple of weeks of writing dissertation, consulting advisor, all those meetings, sleeping on the floor one night at my office on campus. I’m relieved of a lot of the stress that came with it and just the balance that I had to put in,” Sedrick chimed in.

He added, “Very few people complete a PhD in their lifetime and I feel so proud to have done that, and I feel so proud to have done that while being married and being a dad. I’m a full-time dad.”

However, the Montego Bay native feels most gratified by the fact that he and his wife have positively shaped their children’s future.

“The communities that I have been exposed to since being a PhD student, the people I’m around, the people from several different countries, speak different languages, know of different opportunities in the world; our daughters will have a better life because of that,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com