At Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, senior D’Neisha Thomas is involved in just about every aspect of campus life, and manages to maintain a 3.0 grade point average while also balancing a heavy load of extracurricular activities.
Like many children in the territory, Thomas grew up in a single-parent home, but that has not slowed her down one bit. Thomas met her biological father only four years ago, and has recently begun to include him in her life, but said that it is her mother, Dehlia Simmonds, that taught her "everything I know." The new relationship with her dad also brought along the addition of new siblings — for a total of three brothers, three stepbrothers and two sisters — and Thomas said the group has been able to get close over the years, providing a constant source of inspiration and comfort for her.
"With my father, I always knew he wasn’t there, and it hurt, but I always had my mom," Thomas said. "She was always there, taking care of me and my older sister, and that has been such a blessing. She basically taught me that I can always do something once I put my mind to it, and that’s what I hold on to every day."
With her mom in her corner, Thomas began to excel early in school. One of her greatest accomplishments happened in third grade when she won the tourism essay contest and went on to represent the territory in a competition where she faced off against a range of students from islands all over the Caribbean.
"The question was something like, ‘Considering the current state of the world, describe why your island is the best place to visit,’" Thomas said. "I talked about our Carnival, how it’s a good time to come out, relax and unwind. I gave everyone the dates and times of the events, and the history behind them. I showed them that the Virgin Islands is really paradise."
Through her early years at New Testament Academy, Joseph Gomez Elementary School, Bertha C. Boshulte Middle School and now Eudora Kean, Thomas has maintained honor roll standing. Most recently, she placed third in the annual "Laws of Life" essay contest, funded through the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands by a grant from the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation.
At Kean, she is also a cheerleader and a member of the JROTC, and outside of school, she is part of the cast of Graffiti Street and the Seventh Day Adventists AY group.
"With my church group, on Saturdays, we wake up at about 6 a.m. and go feed the homeless," Thomas said. "Afterward, we go to church. It’s just something I feel that I have to do. All these things, the activities I do, they all speak to different parts of me, they are all things I am passionate about, and there is nothing, I think, that I would pick above the other."
Asked how she balances out her activities with her schoolwork, Thomas thought for a minute, then giggled and said, "I just get it done. You have to discipline yourself."
With graduation now on the horizon, Thomas said she wants to join the Army before going off to college and majoring in criminal justice.
"My real goal is to become a U.S. Marshal," she said. "I want to help people. Growing up here in the Virgin Islands, we all know there’s a lot of crime going on, and I want to be a part of the solution. I’ve always had a passion for that, ever since I was little, and I really want to be in a place where I can help do something about it."
