Nasiya Siara Somra had one assignment and one exam left at the University of Guyana when the MV Barima capsized in July. Her father, Raymond Somra, was aboard. His body was never recovered.

This November, Nasiya will walk across the graduation stage after completing her Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship at UG’s Berbice Campus. She already knows what her father would have done if he were there.

“Knowing him, he would have been bragging about this to everyone,” she told the university. “He would be sharing my achievements on his social media timeline and telling other people about my progress.”

Raymond worked as a seaman and was aboard the Barima as it travelled from Georgetown to Port Kaituma, Region One. Nasiya’s grandmother was the first to tell her the vessel had capsized. With exams approaching, she set her studies aside as the family waited to find out whether he had been aboard and whether he had survived.

Although they lived apart, her father visited and called regularly. She last saw him in June. In their final phone call, he asked two things. Had she got her driver’s licence? And had she switched to law?

Law had long been her goal. She had planned to spend a year studying entrepreneurship before switching programmes, but she grew to love the subject and decided to finish the degree. That was what she told him on the phone.

As she grieved, there were days when getting out of bed felt beyond her. “But, in the middle of that grief, I did not want to give up on my studies,” she said.

Her family helped her through those weeks. At UG, Jermaine Clarke, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Management, helped arrange psychological support, and the university assisted her with her exams.

Nasiya has since enrolled in a Master of Laws programme in International Business and International Law at UG’s Turkeyen Campus. For her, taking up law is a way to honour the father who called to ask whether she had started.