Former Magnum Queen Child Tash graduates with honours from UWI | Leisure

Dancehall artiste, Child Tash, is an enormous woman now, and has the diploma to point out it. She was one in all greater than 4,000 college students from the Class of 2022 who had been conferred with levels, diplomas and certificates by The College of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, final week.

Born Tashon Williams, she was raised within the Dallas Lane space in Spanish City, St Catherine, in a single-parent residence along with her two sisters. Her mom and grandmother would instil in her life classes on turning into the robust girl she is supposed to be, she stated in an interview with T he Gleaner.

Williams additionally stated that her childhood in Spanish City was “motivation to matriculate” and to pursue a college diploma. She had a eureka second as she ready to placed on the blue princetta, she stated, as an alternative of going forward along with her unique plan to do her commencement photoshoot on campus, to go again to the place it began.

“I used to cross that prepare line every single day to and from faculty, from Spanish City Toddler, to Spanish City Major College and Jonathan Grant Excessive, the place I grew to become head woman and in addition a Miss Jonathan Excessive pageant winner. I left that neighborhood and moved to Kingston shortly after successful Magnum Kings and Queens,” Williams shared.

She added, “The goal of the photoshoot was to seize a real and significant illustration of my evolution. To depict that it’s not the place you’re coming from however the place you’re going. The place you develop up has nothing to do with reaching your objectives.”

The assured lyricist, identified for singles resembling Combine Up, Fb, Nah Sekkle Down and her characteristic on Mavado’s By no means Imagine You remix, is a proud first era graduate.

“The diploma was awarded from February however to take part within the commencement ceremony made me emotional. All the things was cool till that day once I placed on the robe … it was surreal … it has quite a bit to do with my upbringing. Rising up in an inner-city neighborhood in Spanish City, you don’t see this occurring often,” she stated. “None of my members of the family have gone to college; some stopped at highschool or by no means even had the chance to graduate highschool [so] that is large for everyone in my household. My grandmother has handed however I’m glad as a result of my mom was additionally capable of witness me graduate.”

She enrolled at The UWI in 2018 and accomplished her research earlier this yr, incomes her Bachelor of Arts diploma in Leisure and Cultural Enterprise Administration, graduating with honours. Nevertheless, Williams’ tutorial journey as a college pupil didn’t start there.

She started research in Enterprise Administration on the College of Know-how after which switched to Communication Arts and Know-how after which had extra questions.

“At that time I felt I used to be simply doing a level versus doing one thing I used to be obsessed with. It simply felt like I used to be being taught to take a seat at a desk and file papers. I auditioned for Magnum Kings and Queens as a result of I used to be obsessed with music and I by no means even had any expectations. After I went on campus, individuals had been questioning me about dubplates and music, I began to really feel misplaced. I used to be in school daydreaming about music.”

She made a number of breakthroughs in her recording profession, however when her first European tour was cancelled in 2017, Williams determined to do some soul-searching and after attending a JACAP member’s seminar, she discovered new course.

“I obtained to work together with different professionals within the music business from Jamaica and abroad and it so occurred {that a} director from UWI was talking about programs and programmes. Subsequent factor you already know, me attain up a di campus,” Williams stated in animatedly. She was awarded a scholarship by the Minister of Tradition, Gender, Leisure and Sports activities Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange in her first yr on the college, after which one semester she “signed into the scholar platform, solely to grasp my tuition had been paid for”.

“God is superb, for this reason I ‘stay by religion not by sight’. I might had some financial savings to have the ability to pay for the opposite years however I can say I’ve been blessed. Even once I enrolled at UWI, I spent lots of time in numerous college coordinators’ places of work attempting to alter course … however right here I’m now, I made the Dean’s Record and I’ve stamped my mark at UWI because the Cultural and Leisure Affairs chairperson, the place I established the primary leisure and occasion planning workshop dubbed ‘Goal For Influence’,” she shared.

stephanie.lyew@gleanerjm.com