Jordyn Richardson faces a long road in her quest to become a psychiatrist, but she has the determination and ability to make her dream come true.

The 17-year-old Berkeley Institute pupil was granted an associate’s degree in psychology with distinction from the Bermuda College, and will receive her high school diploma this month after taking part in the school’s dual enrolment programme.

She graduated from Bermuda College with a 3.758 grade point average and is heading to the nationally ranked Ohio State University at the start of September.

Jordyn said: “I’ve always been pretty driven. I’ve always wanted to outdo myself, and academics have always been important to me, so I thought ‘you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do’.”

Jordyn, from Smith’s, said that she joined the programme in 2017 in the hope of taking a course that granted her more college credits.

She did not take very many high school classes, but received a strenuous amount of college coursework.

She explained: “It wasn’t extremely difficult, but it was just a large volume of work.

“My first semester I took seven courses and when I graduated, I took four, so I received a full workload like I was a regular college student.”

Jordyn said that she stayed motivated by reminding herself why she was there.

She said: “I just knew this is what I have to do, this is what I signed up for and I’m going to do my best at it.

Jordyn continued: “So I just did what I had to do. I want to be a psychiatrist, so I still have a lot of years ahead of me in school.

“I really need to do my best because getting into medical school is not easy, so the more that I do now the better prepared I will be for the future.”

Jordyn later learnt that her hard work paid off when she was granted an award for her outstanding performance a day before her April graduation.

She said: “I got an e-mail saying that I was invited to part of the division award ceremony, which is where they give out different awards the night before graduation.

“They didn’t tell me what award I was getting, and when I went to the awards ceremony they awarded me with the Most Outstanding Graduate in the Division of Arts and Science award. That was the last thing I was expecting to get, but I was extremely proud of myself.”

Jordyn advised other students to remember what they might gain if they stayed on task.

She said: “Sacrifice is one of the biggest things that you have to do.

“If you have certain goals then you have to keep those in mind at all times, no matter what you feel at that exact moment, because you have to put off your temporary feelings for a more permanent end goal.”