Back in 2014, Trinidadian newspaper, The Guardian, interviewed Mandela Patrick, who had just enrolled at Harvard University. At the end of the interview it was clear that this young man was going to achieve great things.
Patrick, a former Naparima Boys’ student from Palmiste, San Fernando, had received ten distinctions in his CXC examinations and was heading to Harvard University. The 2014 interview with The Guardian brought this young Trinidadian into the spotlight. One of the questions asked in that interview that I think is relevant to many young people from across the Caribbean, is what contributed to his success. This was Patrick’s response,
“God has definitely contributed to my success. I strongly believe that a spiritual background and a relationship with God is a necessity to succeed. Secondly, my parents, Raymond and Hyacinth Patrick, and my brother, Nku Patrick, contributed significantly. And my teachers. There are so many teachers that had a positive impact on my success.”
Here is Patrick in another interview back in June 2014
Patrick’s years at Harvard were dotted with numerous accomplishments. In 2015, he worked at Facebook as an intern. A year later he landed a summer job at Goldman Sachs and earlier this year, he was a software engineer at Instagram.
This year Patrick emerged as the winner of the 2018 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship. He was one of nine candidates who applied for the scholarship to study at Oxford University, United Kingdom. Over the next two years, Patrick will complete a Masters in Computer Science and Statistics.
In an interview with Barbados Advocate newspaper, Patrick said,
“It is all about hard work. You got to set your goal and you got to do whatever it takes to get that goal. I have been dreaming about this for the longest while and when I got into Harvard I was really putting in the work.
“Everything I have done is extremely important. I wish my mom and dad was here right now, because they have done so much for me”
For more in Patrick’s own words, watch his short interview with Nation News below,
