Kerisa Harriott’s charity mission
HER appearance is striking, and she manages to command the attention of individuals wherever she goes.
On top of that, the tenderness and care in her voice illustrate her deep concern for charity causes and for whatever mission she undertakes.
When All Woman caught up with 31-year-old Kerisa Harriott in Queens, New York, at the Children of Jamaica Outreach (COJO) Summer Soiree where she modelled for the designers on display, she explained that she dedicates a big part of her life to giving back in whatever way she can to children back home in Jamaica, and wholeheartedly supports the mission of COJO.
“I came three years ago as a guest and fell in love with what it’s about. I love the fact that it’s a fundraiser to help Jamaican nationals — underserved children who really can’t afford to go to higher educational levels. What founder and chairman Gary Williams is doing is meaningful, and it aligns perfectly with my philosophy and desire to help, so I came on board to model the pieces and do my part to help these kids,” she said.
Born and raised in the Kingston 20 community of Cooreville Gardens, Harriott further shared that she attended Hillel Academy, but that was possible due to a full scholarship she received.
She said that her experiences there paved the way for her to pursue her dreams of going into the medical field. She is now a doctor of dental medicine with specialisation in orthodontics.
“Life was awesome, and sometimes it felt as if I lived two lives. I lived in Cooreville, but I went to Hillel. Anyway, the experience was wonderful and I knew for sure I wanted to be in health care,” she said.
Harriott explained that when she was growing up in Jamaica, many of her peers wanted to become medical doctors, but her frequent association with dentists influenced her eventual career choice.
“I wore braces as a child, and so my interest in going into orthodontics was born. I even used to play dentist with my next-door neighbour. My mother actually had one of the intraoral mirrors that the dentists have. I took it, but she didn’t know, and I played with it with my next-door neighbour.”
And so, after leaving Hillel she went to Randolph-Macon College, where she pursued a degree in chemistry, worked for a year as a junior scientist at Siemens Diagnostics, then started dental school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which is part of Rutgers University in New Jersey. This busy young lady even found time to enter the Ms Jamaica-USA 2010 contest, and ended up winning the title!
On completing her course she did a residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, then went on to specialise in orthodontics at Brockport in New York.
Harriott said she never lost her zeal to give back, and used the Ms Jamaica-USA project to initiate a scholarship fund in honour of her late father Michael Wesley Harriott, to be given to students of Dunrobin Primary School transitioning to high school who had a parent in the police force.
She has also participated in mission trips to Jamaica to provide dental care to those in need, as well as outreach programmes to educate lower-income communities about improving their overall health.
Also a foodie, Harriott enjoys Thai cuisine, cooking, dancing, reading and watching documentaries. Her daily mantra is to use any disappointment as a learning experience.
She says where philanthropy is concerned, she knows she will eventually return to Jamaica to give back on a much bigger scale.
“In Jamaica there’s a need for dental care. The government is making strides as there are two dental schools now, and the coverage of the Jamaican community is growing. However, there is still a huge need for more exposure, and that’s where most of these mission trips come in. I have a strong sense of country and Jamaican pride, so I will end up back in Jamaica and dedicate myself to this cause,” she affirmed.
