Photo Caption: Azharia Brown, the 2025 JN Foundation PEP scholarship St Andrew awardee, smartly attired in her Campion College uniform.

From the modest home she shares with her mother and younger sister, Azharia Brown never imagined she would one day roam the halls of one of the country’s top high schools, Campion College, as a student.

Homeschooled in her early years, Azharia found the transition to her previous school, Ardenne Prep far from easy. However, she quickly settled in, keeping pace with peers and adapting to a different style of learning. Even when health challenges later disrupted her preparation for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams, she persevered, excelling to secure not only a place at her first-choice school but also a five-year scholarship from the JN Foundation. With a PEP score of 387.5, Azharia earned the scholarship as the awardee for the parish of St. Andrew.

For her, the exams “were easier than expected,” and she is thankful not only for the results but also for the financial aid that will support her studies.  “I just hope I can maintain my grades to keep the scholarship for the full time I’ve been given. I don’t know how my brain works, but once I review something, I grasp the entire topic. Sometimes I don’t even need to open the book, just the notes from class stay with me,” she shared.

Just a few weeks into her new school environment, Azharia has already taken note of her peers’ strong work ethic, saying they are “all serious about their work.”

“My expectation is that I will remain at the top of the class because I also take my work seriously,” she added.

She’s looking forward to getting involved in her new school’s debate, quiz and drama clubs, but her love for mathematics, information technology, and robotics also drives her bigger ambitions. Azharia envisions someday creating groundbreaking inventions for medical science that could improve lives and expand access to healthcare, as well as innovations for entertainment that merge creativity with technology.

“I like seeing people using machines and making their creations and so I want to be an inventor when I grow up,” she said.

That ambition keeps her motivated despite the limited resources, her mother, Junie Powers admits. Ms Powers, who is a special needs tutor in Kingston, said whatever her daughter decides to do, she only wants her to be happy and serve the Lord faithfully.

“She’s been interested in robotics, but we never really knew where to get her that kind of exposure,” Ms. Powers said while congratulating her daughter on her PEP results. Although somewhat surprised by her placement at Campion College, she added, “She has a very good memory.”

Ms Powers noted that securing the JN Foundation scholarship also marks the start of a path she hopes will lead to the discoveries that matter most to her daughter.

“I really appreciate the scholarship and I am happy about what the JN Foundation has been doing for children like Azharia here in Jamaica and their families. I wish the JN team all the success in the programme and I hope Azharia and the other awardees will make very good use of the opportunity,” she said.

On the other hand, Azharia’s father, Patrick Brown, who currently works in finance and accounting after previously being in external auditing, shared that he was not surprised at her results and is proud of her achievements. He said he also looks forward to what she will accomplish in the future.

“She has the support of both parents. We allow her to express herself, and I believe that’s why she’s able to find her own space and apply herself,” he said. “There’s no pressure. I always tell her to get the qualifications out of the way while also learning skills that will give her flexibility in how she approaches the future.”

One of 37 recipients of five-year scholarships this year, Azharia Brown joins the list of hundreds of young Jamaicans whose secondary education have been supported through the JN Foundation’s scholarship programme since 1983. Of the 37, fourteen recipients are parish scholars; three, JN Bank Easi-Save County scholars, and 20 are children of JN Group employees who gained the Building Excellence and Achieving More Success (BEAMS) scholarship for attaining a placement score of at least 320. An additional 10 students were presented with grants by JN Money Services.