When biomedical science undergraduate student Jhaleisjha DeSilva walked into a lecture at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, she had no idea she was about to encounter a fellow Bermudian.
But she is forever thankful that she did.
By coincidence, biochemist Carika Weldon, now the founder and CEO of genetic research company CariGenetics, was the lecturer. She has since had a profound influence on Ms DeSilva’s career path.
“It was literally a surprise,” recalled Ms DeSilva. “She started talking and she told everyone that she was from Bermuda and I was like ‘oh, nice’.
“As soon as the lecture was over, I went up to her and I was like, ‘By the way, I’m Bermudian as well,’ We’ve spoken and known each other ever since and she’s been like a mentor to me.”
That professional relationship has now resulted in an “amazing” outcome for the 27-year-old.
Ms DeSilva is the inaugural recipient of the Marie V Gibbons Scholarship, an award named after Dr Weldon’s beloved late grandmother and set up to help Bermudians become fully qualified lab technologists in Britain.
The scholarship is open to Bermudians with honours degrees in biomedical science from British universities and enables them to do a one-year placement at the Poundbury Cancer Institute in Dorset to complete their portfolio for Health and Care Professions Council registration.
Ms DeSilva said: “It is the whole package, because everything is paid for. All I have to worry about is completing my portfolio.”
The icing on the cake is that a job back in Bermuda at CariGenetics awaits her upon completion of her placement and portfolio.
Ms DeSilva described that as a relief, after a struggle to find her dream job in the UK.
“It’s been such a long time and it’s been quite hard because the competitiveness in London was so extreme and I did have a very difficult time trying to find something that matched with what I wanted,” she said.
Ms DeSilva, who grew up in St David’s until she moved to Britain at the age of nine, said she had “always been a science geek”.
“I’ve really just always loved science,” she said.
That passion led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science at De Montfort.
After a post-degree gap year spent travelling, she moved back to Bermuda, where her parents and most of her family live, and got a job at the central government laboratory.
The position enabled her to gain valuable hands-on work experience.
Returning to the island also enabled her to reconnect earlier this year with Dr Weldon, the first solo Black female founder of a genomics company in the world.
“I wanted to get my IBMS [Institute of Biomedical Science] portfolio completed, which is what you usually do after your degree,” said Ms DeSilva.
“I messaged her and I asked to meet and I basically just explained to her my situation. She was like, ‘I can help you out with that.’
“Carika was really, really helpful with the whole entire journey.”
Ms DeSilva moved to Dorchester and began work at the Poundbury Institute in August, describing it as a “really lovely, very encouraging, very supportive” environment.
She is thankful to her colleagues there, as well as those at the Bermuda Government lab, and especially to Dr Weldon and the CariGenetics team.
Her hope is to inspire other Bermudians to consider a similar path.
“I feel like I would love to be a part of introducing Bermudians to science in general and the different routes that you can go in science,” Ms DeSilva said.
“I know a lot of people think of science and they think of becoming a doctor or a nurse. But I feel like not a lot of people know that there’s other routes that you can take.”
She added: “I genuinely love biomedical science. It’s so interesting.”
