Sometimes when we meet people, we get a good feeling about their future. When I met Akilah Wilson, I immediately got the feeling she is one of those people who has a bright future ahead of her.

Akilah, at age 23, is a determined young woman.

So determined is she to break the cycle so prevalent in her life that in 2000 when ACE turned her down for its scholarship, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Instead of letting ACE's rejection get the better of her, Akilah sat down and looked at what qualifications those who were successful in getting the scholarship had and then went out to excel them.

This is the story of a young lady who refused to allow society to hold her down, refused to let anyone label her and is going for the gold.

Akilah graduated from the Berkeley Institute in 1996 and went on to attend the Saltus Grammar Senior School Year.

After graduating from Saltus, Akilah went to work at the MarketPlace as a cashier because she had no financial means to continue her education. Akilah's family life has not been picture perfect.

For reasons unknown to herself, her relationship with her mother broke down to the point that they are no longer in contact with each other. Akilah was only 13 years old at the time. She then moved in with her father only to find at age 19, once again she was out on her own.

Therefore, having nowhere to turn for financial assistance and needing to keep a roof over her head, Akilah looked for ways to improve her financial status.

Within a year after showing initiative and hard work, Akilah was promoted to book keeping at the MarketPlace. Still she was not satisfied and knew that there was so much more available to her.

Therefore, she had her friend who was working at the Registrar's Office help her put together her resume.

After completing Akilah's resume, her friend too saw that Akilah had potential so she gave Akilah's resume to her boss. In February of 1999, Akilah was called in for an interview.

She was offered a temporary position as a Registration Clerk at the Registrar's office. Seeing this position, even though it was a temporary position and not the one she originally wanted, as a stepping stone to the next level, Akilah accepted the job.

By April, Akilah was offered a full-time position at the Registrar's Office. She looked around to see where she thought she would gain the most exposure in the Registrar's Office when she fell upon the Insurance Division. She made herself known to Jeremy Cox and kept harassing him about giving her a chance to work in his division.

In the meantime, she was attending the Bermuda College because she felt stuck as a clerk. She was growing frustrated and decided to do up her resume again to find a job somewhere else.

While reviewing her resume, she was hit by the cold reality that she had nothing to offer anyone and knew that if she did nothing to better herself; she would always be a clerk. That reality was not good enough for her.

In September of 2000, she wanted to attend the College but couldn't because at age 19, she was living on her own and had no one to support her.

Therefore in order to go to school and pay her bills, she needed assistance. She applied for both the ACE and BFIS scholarships, only to be rejected by ACE.

However, she was successful in obtaining the BFIS scholarship.

Through the assistance of her mentor, Josie Richardson and Mr. Cox, Akilah was able to obtain the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies (BFIS) two year scholarship to attend the Bermuda College.

At first Akilah was very excited but soon her excitement was replaced with anxiety when she read through the terms of the scholarship.

The scholarship specified that she had to be a full time student at the College and she had to maintain a 3.0 (B) average if she wanted to keep the scholarship.

In order to be considered a full time student, she had to take a minimum of four classes. She was only used to doing two classes while working full time. Four classes were going to be a challenge.

Akilah could not afford to quit work. Who was going to pay her bills? How was she going to pull this off? So determined was she to better herself that she talked to her colleagues about how she could fit going to school full time into the job she so desperately needed to sustain herself.

Mr. Cox worked closely with Akilah to allow her to work full time and attend school full time.

Akilah says this was the most challenging period of her life and there were many days when she wanted to just quit.

But she says whenever she could not see the light at the end of the tunnel, Josie Richardson, Jeremy Cox and her boss Cynthia Thomas were there telling her that her efforts would be rewarded in the end.

So she kept on despite not having a life for two years. Akilah had to give up her lunch break from September of 2000 because she was attending school during her lunch break. She also had to attend school a couple of evenings a week. And on weekends, she was doing volunteer work to fill out her resume.

Cynthia Thomas, her boss at the time was 100 percent behind Akilah's efforts to better herself, but she did not want to appear to be favouring Akilah over her other staff so she told Akilah she still had to keep to her required 35 hours to be considered a full time employee.

Akilah says sometimes she would cry because of how hard it was to study and keep working at the same time as well as provide community service on the weekend.

It was Josie who kept telling Akilah that she was too close to stop now. Akilah felt a tremendous amount of pressure as well because she did not want to let anyone down.

Next week: How Akilah made her dreams come true through hard work and dedication.

Cathy Duffy is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and is now a freelance writer. She is a former executive of Zurich Global Energy and has 15 years experience in the insurance industry. She writes on insurance issues in The Royal Gazette every Monday. Feedback crduffy@cwbda.bm