laudette Baisden has always been "a project" for as long as she can remember. It is her polite euphemism for the stronger term, "rebel". A self-admitted tomboy who better identified with her brother Glenn and male peers growing up, she also knew that the grandmother who raised her was "very, very strict", with the prospect of "getting licks" ever- present.

Like all children, Claudette often chafed at being so tightly reined in, but today she is grateful for the wisdom and firm hand which, even now, continues to guide her as an adult.

"My grandmother always said, 'In life you have choices, but when it comes to the consequences there are no choices'," she recalls. "I must say she's done a good job, and I am thankful that I was brought up in the old school."

Indeed, Ms Baisden is today a mature, level-headed and disciplined woman who is dedicated to self-improvement and the achievement of higher goals ? not least because she wants to make her family, and her granny in particular, even more proud of her.

In fact, she has recently gained her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies at Southern Vermont College, and in typical fashion is already impatient to move on and conquer the next goals she has set herself.

Currently a Park Ranger, and before that a Police officer, Ms Baisden reasons that, after spending almost 20 years in uniform, she now wants to take her career to a higher level ? and specifically one where she will dress like a successful management employee. However, this does not mean that she wants to turn her back on the environment, which has been one of her lifelong passions, but rather she sees her future as a domain which has as its basis the parks, beaches and open spaces of Bermuda, but which finds her based in the office which manages them.

"My goal is to find myself in a senior management position while my granny is still alive and has her health," she explains. "I also want to have weekends and holidays off, and just spend quality time with my family."

In addition, Ms Baisden would like to teach environmental issues in the Community Education programme "because it is important give something back", and also to travel.

While basking in the success of her newly-acquired degree, this "can do" woman stresses that acquiring it was no easy road. Quite the contrary. It proved to be a long and winding one with many bumps, but through telling her story she hopes she will be an inspiration to others.

"Education is the key," Ms Baisden says. "If I can do it, anybody can."

So just what did it take, then?

In a nutshell: Determination, discipline, and a strong will to succeed. Of these, discipline was probably the most difficult to accept, for by her own admission Ms Baisden has always had a firm sense of her own destiny, and known what she wants to do in life, and did not readily accept fitting into preconceived moulds.

Sent away to school at age 13, she was initially homesick but "did what I had to do". Two and a half years at the Berkeley Institute then followed, where her love of geography and science was kindled. Then it was off to Maine Central Institute, with her sister Frenchleen being given responsibility for ensuring that their mother's dream of educating her daughters did not go awry. An initial warning by the school authorities that a late night on the town with older students would not be tolerated a second time was all the Bermudian teenager needed to "straighten up and fly right".

"I didn't want to face my grandmother, so I studied hard, and was on the track team. In fact, I was the 1979 (Maine) state champion hurdler," Ms Baisden recalls. "I was also the only girl on the boys' soccer team, whose captain was George Dyer from Bermuda. I was a striker, and everybody would come out to see this girl play soccer ? that was a big thing."

Attention in the chemistry/science classes was not always what the instructor had in mind, however.

"I was always making my own little bombs, and the teacher would say, 'How did you come up with that?' I'd answer, 'Don't ask me. I just have this feeling for chemistry'," Ms Baisden remembers.

Graduating in 1981, she then set her sights on becoming an airline stewardess ? an idea firmly dismissed by her mother as a passing fantasy, who insisted instead that she go to college.

Thus it was that the young Bermudian ended up attending Southern Vermont College where, on arrival, she remembers being met by five fellow students, four of them male.

"Apparently the boys were expecting a blonde, blue-eyed beauty with a suntan; instead they got someone with a year-round tan!" Ms Baisden chuckles.

Looking back on those years, the then-party girl admits that her old bugbear, Discipline, still was not something with which she was comfortable.

"School wasn't my first priority, but I stayed for a couple of years. I had one semester left to graduate when I decided I wanted to make money, so I decided to join the Bermuda Police Service."

An interview with Commissioner Bean during her Easter break led to the start of her first career in September.

"In the beginning, I wasn't used to discipline of that magnitude, and I was still a party girl, but somewhere along the way I knew I had to strike a balance," Ms Baisden says. "I was young, and I knew I had to mature quickly in order to be an officer with vision."

So the neophyte constable settled down and developed the skills which ultimately made her a conscientious officer ? and one with a heart when warranted, it seems.

"If I saw people doing illegal things, I'd put them on notice that when I came on duty I was coming back to deal with them, and they'd say, 'OK Claudette, you won't catch me'. If I saw someone I'd put in court who was then trying to make something better of themselves (because I always checked back on them), I would always put in a good word with the magistrate: 'He is trying. I wouldn't mind if you'd give him a chance', I'd say. That's the type of police officer I was."

When it came to taking suspects' statements, Ms Baisden says she was compassionate, patient, and let her personality work to her advantage in eliciting the truth without force ? sometimes to the bane of her superiors, who would often admonish her: 'If you want to be a social worker, go join Social Services.'

Later, serving as a deLater serving as a detective and also a traffic officer, she ended her career when her bid to join the Marine section was unsuccessful.

"They were never ready for Claudette," she says. "Their reasoning was they weren't ready for a female yet, so I resigned."

Nonetheless, Ms Baisden admits the Police Service was "the best thing" that happened to her at that stage in her life because of the positive qualities its discipline instilled ? including punctuality, meeting deadlines, working with various nationalities, trusting others, and one's word being one's bond.

Taking time to contemplate her future, Ms Baisden eventually decided that the Parks Service, which she joined in 1995, would be a perfect match for her "passion for the environment". To overcome what seemed like the job's initial tameness, the new employee decided to learn everything she could about Bermuda's history, beaches, ports, railway trails, ocean, dunes and more, and soon found herself conducting interpretive tours for tourists and students alike.

Then came the day when, while patrolling a beach, she took a horseshoe found lying in the sand as a signal to reassess her future.

"I decided I wanted more options and challenges in my life, and I wanted to finish my degree," she says.

So Ms Baisden returned to Southern Vermont College to complete her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science. Eighteen years had passed since she had left the first time, and a lot had changed in the interim, not least being the advent of computers. "I didn't even know how to turn one one!" she laughs. "I quickly realised that life was a mountain, so I begin to think and act as a mountaineer."

Indeed, the next two and one half years were a struggle which, at times, threatened to engulf her. Among other things, as the only black student in the environmental programme Ms Baisden also felt she had to work twice as hard as anyone else.

"I was very stressed at times because everything was new, and I knew I wanted to excel. I was going to return home with my degree, no matter what," she says. "There were times when I was afraid to look in the mirror because I looked so bad. Sometimes at night I would cry with frustration. Sometimes I would read so much and then get an F in class, but I was determined. I was on a mission, and I studied and studied. I never went anywhere, despite the urgings of my fellow students."

Cards of encouragement from her grandmother; a Bible given to her when she left Bermuda, and regular calls from her niece Skyie in New York, all helped to boost her spirits. By sheer determination, she overcame her obstacles one by one.

"One day I said to myself, 'This is the process. If you want to get to the next level this is what you have to do'," she relates. "I was a very focussed person because anything I want to do I do well. Nothing was going to stand in the way of my degree."

Not even the shock letter Ms Baisden unexpectedly received from the college just weeks before she was due to graduate telling her she was missing a class, and asking her to inform them in writing how she intended to secure it.After all she had been through, it seemed her dream degree was becoming a nightmare. A subsequent meeting with the Academic Dean at first seemed hopeless.

"She told me there was nothing she could do for me. I let her go on, remaining very cool, calm and collected, and then I very firmly told her that graduation day on May 15, 2005 would not be a dress rehearsal for me, but the grand finale, and under no circumstances would my principles be for sale or hire. At the end of the meeting she said she would see what she could do for me."

Two hours later Ms Baisden had her answer: 'Report to the Environmental Issues class.' So for the next two weeks she drove herself relentlessly, studying through the nights until 5 a.m.

"I am proud to say I achieved an A minus in Environmental Issues, and graduated with everyone else, watched by my sister, her husband Loring, and Skyie. It really was a very proud moment. I was also nominated for the Edwards Award for the student who best emphasised the mission of Southern Vermont College."

Above all, the graduate says her college experience taught her that whatever work she undertakes in life must be not just acceptable but exceptional. Thus it is that the Park Ranger is now determined to work on her newest goals: Achieving a senior management position while her grandmother is still alive and has her health, and also gaining her Master's degree in environmental engineering through on-line studies, which she will commence next month.

"Getting my degree changed my whole life and the way I think," she says. "I am here to serve God, and I know my life is through the environment.

"As an environmentalist I am not going to 'think green'. The course I want to chart is, 'We have to live in harmony. We have to believe in and save open space, but we also have to find a way to strike that delicate balance'. We can control what happens on Earth.

"We must sit down together and come up with a comprehensive plan which includes different sectors of society. Most importantly, the people who are going to be directly affected must be listened to. Educating society is the key. The days are over when you have to agree with everyone. It is very healthy for people come to the table with different views. At the end of the day we live with solutions for the betterment of all."