Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

“When the re­sults were re­leased, my slip re­vealed my fourth choice and I felt a sting of dis­ap­point­ment deep with­in. This hap­pened decades ago, but I can ef­fort­less­ly re­call those feel­ings. There my jour­ney start­ed, one that is a tes­ta­ment to the in­cred­i­ble pow­er that lies with­in each one of us.”

To­day, Nekeisha Nel­son is a force to be reck­oned with. She is a moth­er of three girls, Safiyyah 18, Naimah 17, and Nafisah 15, as well as a uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate with first class ho­n­ours hold­ing a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion, a sea­soned ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al with more than 20 years’ ex­pe­ri­ence, pas­sion­ate about her pro­fes­sion, and mo­ti­vat­ed to add val­ue to all lives she cross­es paths with.

Cur­rent­ly, Nel­son serves as an ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al at SporTT, the key im­ple­men­ta­tion agency for the Min­istry of Sport. Ser­vant lead­er­ship is en­grained in her DNA as she al­so holds the role of cur­rent Chair­man of the Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee of the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ad­min­is­tra­tive Pro­fes­sion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NAAPTT) and train­er with the on­line plat­form, The Stu­dent Hub.

Nel­son avid­ly shares from her wis­dom lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. Just weeks ago, she was an in­vit­ed speak­er at the 2023 Ex­ec­u­tive Sec­re­tary (ES) Glob­al Con­fer­ence and pre­sent­ed on ‘De­vel­op­ing Busi­ness Acu­men as a Strate­gic Part­ner’ fo­cussing di­rect­ly on the skills and knowl­edge ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­als re­quire to make a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion with­in their or­gan­i­sa­tions and dri­ve busi­ness suc­cess.

Her first pre­sen­ta­tion at this es­teemed con­fer­ence was June 2022, pre­sent­ing on the top­ic, ‘The Mind­set of the Mod­ern-Day Ad­min­is­tra­tive Pro­fes­sion­al.’ Nel­son’s ex­u­ber­ance was con­ta­gious as she shared, “be­ing able to con­nect with par­tic­i­pants across the globe was a phe­nom­e­nal ex­pe­ri­ence! Even more re­mark­able, was be­ing con­tact­ed by a par­tic­i­pant from Dubai. She ex­pressed her in­ter­est in en­ter­ing the ad­min pro­fes­sion and want­ed guid­ance on how she can be suc­cess­ful in this ca­reer. This was a true high­light for me!”

Storm of emo­tions on re­sults day

Re­turn­ing to the day of her SEA re­sults, Nel­son re­called that at that ten­der age, “one ex­pe­ri­ences a storm of emo­tions, filled with re­grets, un­cer­tain­ty, and anx­i­ety.”

She said: “My el­der cousin had passed for a pres­tige school the year be­fore and I want­ed to fol­low in her foot­steps. My re­sult stat­ed Cou­va Ju­nior Sec­ondary and I thought at that time, I failed my par­ents and fam­i­ly. How­ev­er, my par­ents quick­ly shift­ed those feel­ings and cel­e­brat­ed my re­sult. The re­as­sur­ance and love they gave me re­moved any doubts and dis­ap­point­ments I had. Look­ing back, the foun­da­tion I re­ceived at Cou­va Ju­nior Sec­ondary has aid­ed in the de­vel­op­ment of my re­silient mind­set.”

Her ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney con­tin­ued at Cara­pichaima Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive, where she at­tained her CXC O’Lev­els and GCE A’Lev­els qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

“To the par­ents nav­i­gat­ing the SEA ex­am re­sults, I want to of­fer re­as­sur­ance. Re­mem­ber that SEA is not the end of the road for your chil­dren. The qual­i­ty of life they have is de­ter­mined by the de­ci­sions they make and the mind­set they cul­ti­vate. Let them know that they are enough and fo­cus on in­still­ing con­fi­dence in their abil­i­ties. Speak life in­to them and en­gage in ac­tiv­i­ties that help them de­vel­op their self-es­teem.”

“SEA is just one mile­stone in their jour­ney, this re­sult will not de­fine their fu­ture suc­cess, but their mind­set and re­silience will.”

Face chal­lenges head-on

“Chal­lenges have been an in­te­gral part of my jour­ney and I have faced them head-on. One piece of ad­vice that I re­ceived from some­one I con­sid­er to be my first life-work men­tor and will nev­er for­get, is that life is like a bus and on this bus ride, there will be pit stops along the way. At each pit stop, you have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to face life with fear or favour. The choice is yours, the right mind­set to make this choice is crit­i­cal. Walk­ing with God and stay­ing aligned to my pur­pose, I was able to over­come my chal­lenges. Sur­round­ing my­self with the right peo­ple, nur­tur­ing self-aware­ness and prac­tic­ing self-love are el­e­ments of the recipe to suc­cess. These el­e­ments have been cru­cial in al­low­ing me to un­lock my true po­ten­tial,” said Nel­son.

“One of my dai­ly habits that con­tributes to my suc­cess is start­ing each day with grat­i­tude and thank­ful­ness. I recog­nise life as a pre­cious gift from God and ex­press­ing my ap­pre­ci­a­tion sets a pos­i­tive tone for the day. Af­fir­ma­tions al­so play a sig­nif­i­cant role in my morn­ing rou­tine.”

“To all those strug­gling to un­lock their own po­ten­tial, my ad­vice is to start by shift­ing your mind­set. Nur­ture your strengths but work on your weak­ness­es. Here’s where in­vest­ing in the right train­ing and coach­ing helps. Em­bark on a per­son­al jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery and life­long learn­ing. Re­mem­ber, you are more than enough, and with the right mind­set, you can achieve great­ness!”

To con­tact Nekeisha Nel­son:

nekeisha.nel­son@gmail.com