Shortly after Jocelyne Josiah’s student application for entry to the University of Guyana (UG) was rejected, supposedly based on her qualifications and teaching experiences, she was accepted at the University of Waterloo (UofW) in Ontario, Canada.
The polyglot, communications specialist and international public servant, who is now 75, subsequently graduated from UofW with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages, with first class honours and won herself a scholarship from the university to complete her master’s degree.
After leaving the Bishops’ High School (BHS) with, as she put it, “barely enough qualifications to find work,” Josiah, who was born in Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara, but grew up in Kitty and Campbellville, began to teach art and music at East Ruimveldt Secondary School in 1966. She subsequently taught temporarily at other schools.