Rose Hall attorney admitted to the bar

Nov 05, 2018 News

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– says success came through prayer, mom’s support, hard work, and a little bit of luck

From the small town of Rose Hall in Berbice, stands a 25-year-old woman who embraced her opportunities and steered clear of the stigmas attached to the township and its youth.
Surihya Pennelope Sabsook on October 25, was admitted to the bar at the Berbice High Court in New Amsterdam as one of Berbice’s youngest attorneys.
Her petition was presented by Attorney-at-law Mursalin Bhaccus and was heard by Justice Navindra Singh.
Justice Navindra Singh in his advice to Sabsook encouraged her to have a vision for the future: what she would like to see done and what she would like to become. He added that she should have long term goals, as up until now, she would have had only short terms goals.
Justice Singh said Sabsook’s first duty is to the Court, while cautioning her against the lures of social media and its impact on one’s integrity and profession.

Whan Kaieteur News spoke with this confident and bubbly personality, Sabsook said that her road to success began from as early as primary school since it was at that tender age that her mother, a single parent, encouraged her to read. Her mother, to whom she credits her success, ensured that she grasped all the opportunities that were available to her.
Sabsook started her primary education at the Rose Hall Town Primary School and later attended St. Roses High School in Georgetown. But she subsequently made the choice together with her mother to remain in Berbice and attend the Berbice High School.
In 2008, she wrote and passed 14 subjects at CSEC, and was the top student for the Berbice High School for that year as well.
The next year, she wrote two additional subjects at CSEC and wrote seven units at CAPE at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School. She was awarded the general studies associate degree and received the runner up prize for best CAPE student as well as the prize for most outstanding law student at that school.
In 2012, Sabsook started her studies at the University of Guyana reading for her Bachelor of Law degree and graduating with credit in 2015 before moving on to the Hugh Wooding Law School in St. Augustine, Trinidad.

JOURNEY TO SUCCESS
According to Sabsook, her mother, Petal Sabsook was running her own business in Rose Hall Town.
“She wanted me to do something more and something different. I think it was something that everybody saw in me from since primary school.

“They are the ones that pushed me to do everything and that was how I ended up doing so many subjects at CSEC because I had my hands in everything.”
Sabsook added that her main source of inspiration comes from her mother who always believed in her and what she did, she added that her mother drew her inspiration from her father who many years ago had started the path to studying law but passed away during his studies. “That was before they had the programme here at UG but he died in the midst of the whole thing so he didn’t get to complete it. So, I drew inspiration from my mom who drew it from him because it was like an incomplete journey that needed a good conclusion.”
She also always had the support of her teachers.
Her mother told this publication that she has always been proud of her daughter, “I am not only proud now, but I was always proud of Surihya since she was a little girl.
She held my head up high and she always did well in school.”
She added that despite the type of environment she lived in “where there is a lot of negativity, she never indulges herself and it never really affected her. She always did what was right and that is what makes me so proud.
“I always ask God that she be someone respectable in society and someone that persons will look up to and this is what she achieved.”
Sabsook’s mother expressed that she sees her daughter as a role model for the town of Rose Hall and its environs and hopes that many may be inspired by her daughter’s success.
The young Attorney’s advice to others is to pray, something she said she only believed in just a few years ago. She noted that prayer coupled with perseverance, determination, hard work and a little bit of luck, is for her, the recipe to success. She posited that, “your biggest enemy is yourself, you have to know what you want, and this is what you want, and you do it. My mom always says, the race is not for the swift but for those who endure it and I believe that”.
Sabsook said she will be opening her law office in Rose Hall Town before year-end since she has no intentions of migrating Berbice and “because it is my hometown and it is where I could be of most help”. She will also be furthering her studies a few years from now to pursue her masters or a business management degree at the University of Guyana.
She expressed thanks to her mom, God, her friends, Ron Motilal, Shivani Lallaram, Tonza Sarabo and Albert Inshanally for standing by her and pushing her to where she is today.

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