Hurricane-displaced students praised for resilience at Immaculate graduation

Two students from St Ann and Westmoreland whose education was disrupted by Hurricane Melissa have been commended by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Dr Kasan Troupe, for their resilience and commitment to their studies.
Shevanese Lopez and Khaydene Campbell were recognised during Immaculate’s 2026 graduation ceremony, held at the Kingston-based institution on Sunday.
Troupe praised the students and their families for taking the initiative to seek placement at one of Jamaica’s top secondary schools after their original institutions suffered hurricane-related damage.
She also commended Immaculate’s principal and board for accommodating the students.
“This is the kind of support we get from our principals,” she said.
Lopez, who transferred from St Hilda’s Diocesan High School in St Ann, said that, after Hurricane Melissa disrupted operations at her school, her parents decided to move her to Immaculate to minimise interruptions to her preparation for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
Though initially apprehensive, she said she was warmly welcomed and came to love Immaculate as much as her former school.
The netballer, who was on St Hilda’s Principal’s Honour Roll, sat three CSEC subjects in Grade 10, earning a grade two in English Language, a grade two in mathematics and a grade one in information technology.
She is awaiting results in Spanish, additional mathematics, literature, chemistry, biology, physics and English Language, which she resat “to get a grade one”.
Lopez hopes to continue her studies in the sciences and pursue a degree in forensic science.
Meanwhile, Khaydene Campbell’s mother, Nadine Bartley Campbell, said that, after her daughter, a student of Manning’s School in Westmoreland, was out of classes for six weeks, she and her husband realised they needed to act.
“She’s a science student and the labs were destroyed [which would make her exam preparations difficult],” she explained.
After securing a place at Immaculate, the family arranged for Campbell to stay with an uncle in Kingston.
Bartley Campbell said she was proud of her daughter’s determination, noting that she deleted all her social media accounts to focus on her studies.
“She started at a prestigious school, and she’s still at a prestigious school. I feel very proud of her. She has worked hard. She’s resilience personified. She did her labs; she did her SBAs (School-Based Assessments). She had to redo some things but we are proud that she stood steadfast,” Bartley Campbell said.