JAMAICA HISTORY MAKER (CONGRATS) : 3-Time PALAS Awardee, Javanney Campbell first in Clan Carthy’s history to bag eight CSEC ones...He recalled days in lower forms where there was no lunch money for him to attend classes. Participated in an exchange programme between Jamaica and China

Excerpt from Jamaica Observer BY ALDANE WALTERS Career & Education writer

Sunday, October 23, 2016 

WHEN Javanney Campbell brought home news that he was placed at Clan Carthy High School after sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in 2011, his family, especially his father, was devastated. JAVANNEY's INTERVIEW ON TVJ

Javanney Campbell, 3-Time PALAS
 Awardee

So upset was the elder Campbell that he refused food for two whole weeks. In his mind, the youngster who had showed so much promise throughout his youngest years had let the family down. They had expected him to join his elder brother Shakeil at the ‘traditional’ Kingston College.

Fast-forward five years. With his son at the end of his journey at Clan Carthy, Jason Campbell’s gross disappointment has morphed into an inexplicable happiness. This, as Javanney silenced all of his naysayers, emerging the first student in Clan Carthy’s 36-year history to obtain eight grade ones in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, and with six straight ‘A’ profiles to boot.

“I don’t think I can explain the feeling. The feeling is like a pandemonium,” the father told the Jamaica Observer by phone from his home in the Cayman Islands.

“When he called me the night, I had just left work and was eating dinner. He video called and said, ‘Daddy, your son is legendary,’” the elder Campbell reported. “The entire family was just so proud of him.”

Javanney Campbell accepts the Louise
Tauzalin Academic Scholarship
From Garfield Morgan at Pegasus in JA

Javanney obtained grades one in: English A, geography, human and social biology, information technology, mathematics, principles of business, social studies and Spanish. The son admits to being very disappointed when he was placed at Clan Carthy, saying that he lost focus because of the friends that he made in grade five. However, in retrospect, given the chance, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“After coming here and seeing the passion by my teachers, it inspired me to work harder. I don’t regret coming to Clan Carthy. I strongly believe that it’s not where you go, it’s what you want to do and what you want to achieve, and your drive for where and what you want,” he said.

Since then, he has always performed at the top of his class and has set standards for his classmates. This standard, he says, formed part of his motivation to do well at the external examinations.

“I wanted to inspire people and set a standard because, over the years, I’ve been setting standards here so I just wanted to leave something behind as a legacy for them to follow. I’m just happy that I did that,” he told

Career & Education.

The motive was to prove everyone who berates non-traditional high schools wrong, including family members who constantly compared him to his older brother.

Javanney and his mother Elaine McIntosh at his
graduation ceremony.

“It took determination. It took dedication to your work. [I] had to have a mindset that I wanted to be successful. I wanted to prove the entire Jamaica wrong, that good can come out of Clan Carthy and I really wanted to prove my family wrong that I am up to the standard of my brother and I am better than my brother. And I did prove that,” he said.

“At one point I obtained an 88 per cent average and they were saying that my 88 per cent here was 20 per cent at KC, so I really wanted to prove them wrong. That drove me to just push myself,” he continued.

An integral part of his success, Javanney says, has been the competitive but loving relationship between himself and his older brother.

“My brother also played an integral role in making me into who I am today. He has always been setting standards for me to break. He has always been there for me when I needed him, he has never told me ‘No’. I think he was very interested in my well-being and education as much as my parents and myself. I always refer to him as my ‘local father’ due to fact he plays the fatherly role in the absence of my father. I love him and he has always motivated me to just do me and aim high, and he is a part of the reason for my success in the recent CSEC exams,” said Campbell.

Attaining this success was not easy, however. Not only did the 16-year-old have to contend with the negative stigma attached to his school, he recalled days in lower forms where there was no lunch money for him to attend classes.

Javanney Campbell and Clan 
Carthy Principal
Hazel CameronMichael Gordon

“I was very poor. On some days I didn’t have lunch money but my grandmother was there. My grandmother would always give me $100 to go to school. That was just my bus fare just to come to school, up to nine grade,” said the teen who lives in Bull Bay, St Andrew.

“But I came here and did my best,” he continued.

In addition to regular timetabled lessons, he attended review classes at school and woke up in the wee hours of the morning to complete assignments, all of which helped him to prepare for the exams. He also maintained a balance between his academics and the many extra-curricular involvements he was a part of. He was president of the JPS Energy Club and the Debate Club and was also a member of the Interact Club and Spanish Club. This, while being a senior prefect. How did he balance his school work, co-curricular involvements and his student leader responsibility? Javanney said he focused on the tasks that were most urgent first.

“I just tried my best to devote time. When things are to be done, I tried my best to get it done,” he said.

And although the young man has consistently performed well, he didn’t think he could have produced as good a result as he did.......His list of intra-school awards include subject prizes, principal’s honour roll, top student and the title of Mr Clan Carthy in 2015. Externally, he has won the Peace and Love Academic Scholarship three times (2014, 2015, 2016), won gold medal at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commision festival competition in 2014 and was selected last year to participate in an exchange programme between Jamaica and China. more