IF YOU were to ask 18-year-old Adeika Perrin just why he chooses a life of servitude through his many mentorship responsibilities, he will simply tell you,"it's not what you get from it, but who you become from it." At least, that's what he told Youthlink.
Now an upper sixth-form student at Belmont Academy, Adeika is heavily involved in school life, where he is a proud mentor in all of his school's mentorship programmes for boys. Among his responsibilities, she lists being a refect, a dean's assistant, the external adviser for the Belmont Academy Students' Council body, a peer council representative, and a senior member of Boys on a Mission (BOM), Perfect Mentorship Programme (PMP), and the Belmont literacy outreach project.
Through these engagements he is able to perform charity. "Where BOM is concerned, we go out to infirmaries and do beautification projects," he said. "However, the goal of BOM is for stronger men of the academy to help the weaker ones along their self-actualisation process. We work with them, we mentor them and act as their bigger brother.'
Through the PMP, prefects are assigned to a second-form student to work with and help him or her to improve in academics and personal development. Adeika has two mentees whom he helps after school, early mornings or sometimes during his lunch break.
A LIFE GOAL
"When you have a passion for something, you go for it," Adeika stated. "As a positive, called-to-lead YOUTHLINK
young man, I believe I am an agent of change and it’s a life goal of mine to positively impact those that I come across and the lives that I encounter.” He deems it a joy when persons approach him to let him know how much he has inspired them and this in itself – the fact that persons look up to him – keeps him going. Raised by only his dad, Adeika says he grew up knowing the discipline and with a positive role model ever-present. “He (my father) saw my potential and saw my leadership abilities, and he pushed me,” he said. “I was expected to know every little thing as I was the eldest one.”
ADEIKA’S LOAF OF BREAD
“Ah loaf of bread is a biblical allusion and it was the height of charity and volunteerism, displaying what it means to be kind and to have courage,” said Adeika.“We, too, can rise up and be counted among the valuable people of society,” he said, as an ode to Jamaican young men. “I am one who strongly believes that men are not called to be benchwarmers; they are called to lead and be an agent of change, so reaching out and giving back to society should be a mandate and a purpose for young men today.” To add to his determination as a mentor, Adeika also performes outreach activities within his community.
“My most recent one was in April/May when we went to a basic school in St James and we basically rebuilt the library – painting and stocking books,” he said, noting that the move was part of a National Secondary Students’ Council outreach event for Region 4.
Academically, Adieka performs well and told Youthlink, “I am always one referred to as brilliant, but I don’t really praise myself that much. I did seven CSEC subjects in one sitting and got all of them, including a distinction.”
He hopes to receive a scholarship to matriculate to The University of the West Indies in the near future.
Beyond that: “I see myself doing acting,” he said. “One of my ultimate goals is to become the next governor-general. I am also a writer – I have a lot of quotes – and I’ve been told I am a motivational speaker.”
Today, he holds on to his philosophy in life, which is something he wrote when he was only 13 years old but hasn’t left him since. “My philosophy is, performance with integrity is the key to the door of hard work, and behind that door is success,” he said.
