Patricia Williams Nears UTech Graduation at 50 After Years of Hardship

Patricia Williams sacrificed nearly everything in pursuit of a university education. Along the way, she lost her business, marriage, house and car, buried her mother and survived a dangerous blood clot. She even continued assignments while confined to a hospital bed.

Now 50, Williams is getting ready to graduate with a bachelor’s degree despite the many crises that threatened to derail her studies.

“From I started the degree I lose everything. I’m like Job,” she said, likening her experience to the biblical figure who remained faithful through severe suffering and loss. “I lost everything.”

Williams, who is from Gordon Town in St Andrew, left Mona High School with three CSEC passes. To qualify for admission to the University of Technology, Jamaica, she returned to pursue more CSEC subjects, among them mathematics and human and social biology.

At the same time, she enrolled in a Level Three entrepreneurship programme at the Vocational Training Development Institute.

“I was going to VTDI in the morning and then leaving in the evening to go to UTech to do the CSEC subjects and then started college,” Williams said.

Her journey into tertiary education began after a shoulder injury made it impossible for her to continue operating the salon business she had established with her then husband.

“I realised that I had to do something else to help myself,” she explained.

Although she had no reliable income and only $40,000 available, Williams registered for an associate degree programme. Her longer-term ambition was to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

“I didn’t know where the rest [of money] was coming from,” she said. A friend continued to encourage her, eventually convincing her to begin the programme despite the uncertainty.

Paying tuition soon became a major obstacle. Williams said the institution warned that she could be removed because she was unable to settle the outstanding fees. She had recently secured employment, but her earnings could not cover the cost.

During that period, her marriage ended and she relocated to a section adjoining her mother’s home. Facing mounting pressure, she turned to prayer and fasting while searching for a way forward.

Having already completed her first year, Williams was unwilling to abandon the programme and lose the progress she had made.

She eventually secured a departmental scholarship, which enabled her to stay enrolled. Throughout the ordeal, she maintained grades that were mainly As and Bs.

Her personal difficulties continued, however. Her mother became gravely ill, while her daughter repeatedly collapsed and needed emergency medical care.

“Almost every night I’m at the University Hospital with my daughter because she keeps collapsing. Sometimes I had to rush out and leave my mother there alone,” Williams said.

Even under that emotional pressure, she rejected advice to pause her education. Williams said someone suggested that she sit out college temporarily, but she was determined not to allow her circumstances to interfere with her academic work.

Her persistence later brought further financial help through awards and bursaries, allowing her to remain at the university and clear the balance on her account.

“It was like God saw me struggling,” she said of receiving the assistance.

As her university finances stabilised, her mother’s health deteriorated. Williams spent nights at the hospital caring for her while continuing her coursework. Her mother was eventually discharged but died shortly after returning home.

Soon after burying her mother, Williams also lost her job. She subsequently obtained another position, but that employer later ceased operations.