A medical condition diagnosed in her final year threatened to slow Latchme Devi Mohess’s progress at university, turning assignments that once took hours into tasks that sometimes required days. But the 24-year-old was determined that nothing would stop her from earning her degree.

The Assistant Mistress at Leonora Primary School enrolled at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus in 2024, encouraged by her husband. As she approached the end of her Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education, the diagnosis brought new challenges and left her struggling with pain.

“Before, I could have finished my assignments in two to three hours. But after the diagnosis, I took a day or probably two days to complete an assignment,” she recalled.

Still, she refused to give up.

“I knew that at this point in time, whatever it is, I am not going to let it go because I had already worked so hard,” she said.

Her husband became her main pillar of support, even moving with her to a quieter home to create a better environment for studying.

“He would prepare test questions, take my lecture notes, and he would go through them with me. So we put a system in place where he was my main pillar,” she said.

Her perseverance has paid off.

Mohess is graduating with distinction and becoming the first person in her family to graduate from the University of Guyana. The university celebrated her achievement alongside those of other graduands who overcame personal challenges to reach the graduation stage.

She expects the moment she walks across that stage to be an emotional one.

Her message to other first-generation graduates is that their achievement can open doors for an entire family and future generations.