RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sev­en­teen-year-old Debe Sec­ondary School stu­dent Alexan­der Sookraj, who earned nine Grade Ones in his Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) ex­am­i­na­tions, says true suc­cess comes with pro­tect­ing men­tal health, not sac­ri­fic­ing it.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Sookraj ad­mit­ted his jour­ney was filled with sleep­less nights and self-doubt, but his re­silience came from two vi­tal sup­ports—his par­ents and his school com­mu­ni­ty.

“My biggest prob­lem was my low con­fi­dence in my ca­pa­bil­i­ties and the anx­i­ety I faced be­fore each ex­am. I man­aged to over­come these prob­lems by re­peat­ed­ly re­as­sur­ing my­self that I was pre­pared for my ex­ams and that I did put in all the work re­quired for me to per­form well in the sub­ject. The crash cours­es I par­tic­i­pat­ed in helped re­lieve my anx­i­ety and im­proved my con­fi­dence in what I knew,” he said.

Through it all, he said, his par­ents, Sarah and Alvin Sookraj, sup­port­ed him.

“They al­ways kept me fo­cused on my goals and helped me to re­lax when the work be­came over­whelm­ing. Even in mo­ments when I want­ed to drop sub­jects like Eng­lish B and Ge­og­ra­phy, they en­cour­aged me to push hard­er — and that made all the dif­fer­ence,” he added.

Raised in a large ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly in San Fer­nan­do, Alexan­der, who en­joys sci­ence, video games, and out­ings with friends, said bal­ance was the se­cret in­gre­di­ent to his suc­cess. He said his study rou­tine was strict—blocks of two to three hours with a full day de­vot­ed to each sub­ject—but he made sure to take breaks.

“Study­ing is im­por­tant, but men­tal health should not be sac­ri­ficed for it,” he em­pha­sized. “I made time to go out with friends, play games, or even grab a bo­ba tea be­fore long study ses­sions. Those small mo­ments kept me ground­ed.”

At Debe Sec­ondary, Alexan­der said he found an en­vi­ron­ment that nur­tured his aca­d­e­m­ic growth and built life­long friend­ships. He said teach­ers like Miss Dhan­raj, who taught him from Form Two through Form Five, and Prin­ci­pal Romeo Guness, whose dai­ly pep talks in­spired his val­ues, played a piv­otal role.

“The staff and my friends were al­ways there to push me, but what I’ll al­ways re­mem­ber are the morals and dis­ci­pline they in­stilled in me,” he said.

De­spite ex­celling in the sci­ences—win­ning top awards for Chem­istry, Physics, Bi­ol­o­gy, and Agri­cul­tur­al Sci­ence—Alexan­der said his proud­est achieve­ments were in the sub­jects he once strug­gled with. “What sur­prised me most was get­ting dis­tinc­tions in Eng­lish B, HSB, and Ge­og­ra­phy. I ex­pect­ed a 2 or 3, but I end­ed up with a 1 in all three,” he said with a smile.

When the morn­ing re­sults were re­leased, he re­called wait­ing anx­ious­ly with his par­ents. “The mo­ment I saw nine ones, I screamed and cried tears of joy. Open­ing my re­sults with my par­ents was one of the hap­pi­est mo­ments of my life.”

Look­ing ahead, Alexan­der hopes to pur­sue stud­ies in Chem­istry and Bio­chem­istry, aim­ing for an open schol­ar­ship and even­tu­al­ly a PhD. His dream is to work in a lab—per­haps in can­cer re­search or en­gi­neer­ing—fields that com­bine his love for sci­ence with a chance to make a dif­fer­ence.

But for now, his fo­cus is on in­spir­ing oth­ers. “Any stu­dent who puts their all in­to their aca­d­e­mics can achieve nine ones and more. But parental sup­port is just as im­por­tant — it push­es you when you feel like giv­ing up. My sto­ry is proof that hard work, bal­ance, and sup­port can help you sur­pass your lim­its.”

Sookraj’s par­ents said they were over­joyed about his achieve­ment.

“Alex has faced a few dif­fi­cul­ties in his life, and he has over­come every sin­gle one. He has proven to be hard­work­ing and com­mit­ted to achiev­ing his goals. What I love most about him is his gen­uine pas­sion for learn­ing and his love for shar­ing his knowl­edge by teach­ing his friends and class­mates. He is so de­ter­mined and dis­ci­plined in every­thing he sets his mind to, yet re­mains a hum­ble and em­pa­thet­ic young man,” Sarah said.

His fa­ther, Alvin, said, “I was over­whelmed and im­pressed by his re­sults. We knew he had it in him to ex­cel all along.”