IN JAMAICA (AN INSPIRATIONAL & POSITIVE STORY) : Damion Lawrence – From Illiterate To 1st Year Law Student at UWI is a Future Advocate... Lawrence a 2015 PALAS applicant has come a far way from the 13-year-old who had no interest in school, was illiterate, repeated classes, and saw going to school as a complete waste of time.

Published:Thursday | June 11, 2015Cecelia Campbell-Livingston
FIRST-YEAR Law student Damion Lawrence has come a far way from the 13-year-old who had no interest in school, was illiterate, repeated classes, and saw going to school as a complete waste of time.

Damion Lawrence

A lot has changed since then, thanks to his mother, Phillipia Nelson, who refused to give up on him in spite of his unwillingness to apply himself to schoolwork.

"I would never have thought I would have gained the ability to read. I showed no improvement in my schoolwork, I repeated classes when I was in the normal school system and, getting older to my teenage years, all hope was definitely lost," he told Rural Xpress.

Lawrence's mother would tell him time and time again that it's an embarrassment to see his name on a bulla and eat it!

"Thankfully, I had a mother who always wanted the best for me, even when I did not want it for myself. At the age of 12, I could not read as I was diagnosed with a learning disorder, and faced with the criticism of society. I was forced to believe that I was a slow learner and I initially accepted this," he said.

But his mother, who saw beyond his inability, enrolled him in a special-needs school - the Edge Hill School of Special Education, which caters to students who are slow learners and who are faced with other cognitive challenges.

"I was always determined to make something of my life though being enrolled in this institution and, with the assistance of my teachers, I pushed myself towards learning to read," he said.

Lawrence made a discovery while attending Ocho Rios High School Special Ed Unit - that it's never too late to make something worthwhile of your life. That was the turning point in his life, where everything changed.

"I definitely did not want to spend another year in the Special Ed Unit, because, during that time, the students from the unit were looked down on as dysfunctional. Secondly, one of my classmates was selected to enter into the normal school system and I was determined that I wanted to matriculate into the normal school system as well and not to be left behind," he said.

Determined To Achieve

Determined that he could achieve whatever he set his mind to, Lawrence set about proving just that. It was not an easy road, as he had to work hard to drastically bring his grades up to the acceptance level. With determination on his side and a very supportive mother, he earned his desire to be a part of the regular school programme.

His path to law was brought about through watching a TV series called The Good Wife, where he had a lot of admiration for the actress's enthusiasm about her job. more