Melissa Ogbourne

AFTER receiving track and field scholarships to attend overseas universities, several Jamaicans have difficulties in balancing their academics and their exploits on the field.

Former Ferncourt and St Jago High athlete Melissa Ogbourne, in her final year at the Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, does not fall into that category. Ogbourne, who was victorious at the Penn Relays last weekend in the College Championships triple jump, where she had a leap of 13.07 metres to defeat her former teammate at St Jago High Sashakaye Matthias of Texas A&M University, was actually winning the event for the second time.

Ogbourne, who was a former head girl at Ferncourt High School, recently received the Jesse Owens award for excellence at LSU. This award is given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA among all minority students in sports at the Institution. Ogbourne, who majors in human resource and education with concentration in leadership and development, got the award for being the top sports performer. For Ogbourne, in her four years at LSU despite doing well in her event, has been very consistent in her academic endeavours and attained a 4.0 GPA and a 3.5 in her four years. That achievement has also seen her make the chancellor's list, the director of athletics list and also on the dean's list.

achievement

Her achievement on the track has earned her two all-American titles in her pet event, along with South Eastern Conference (SEC) titles. Her major achievement came last year at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships where she finished fifth in the triple jump event.

"I am very proud of my achievements so far, but I want to do even better in the final few months. I want to at least improve my GPA to 3.7 and attain 13.5 metres in my triple jump. At the moment I have tendinitis in my knee, but I am doing rehabilitation work now and I am confident that it will be better, so I can improve," she said.

Despite all the hard work, Ogbourne believes she has made the right choice and looks forward to the future.

"I have applied for scholarship grants to go to grad school after my graduation. I am hoping to do my master's, majoring in leadership and development or sports management and although there have been some ups and downs, I have no regrets about coming to LSU."