IN JAMAICA (BREAKING THE CYCLE) : KRISHNA BROWN — from rough life in Greenwich Town to a flood of degrees, attained five Master's degrees and numerous post-graduate diplomas

 BY INGRID BROWN Associate editor -- Special Assignment browni@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, July 26, 2015  

WHILE growing up in the tough inner-city community of Greenwich Town in Kingston Krishna Brown read about a woman who had five master's degrees and immediately decided he would not allow his financial limitations or social standing to prevent him from attaining the same.

Today, Brown has not only attained five Master's degrees and numerous post-graduate diplomas, but continues to excel as a linguistic consultant, trainer and life coach in Madrid, Spain where he has been living for the past 14 years.

BROWN… you are created not to make a living but a
difference in humanity because you are unique and priceless.

Founder and director of livingenglish.com Brown has, among other things, worked for the European and Spanish presidency as a liaison officer to ministers of state, served as a freelance interpreter and translator with the United Nations, a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) teacher trainer at the Ministry of Education of Madrid, and linguistic consultant with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madrid. He is currently employed to the CSIM, University of Complutense, Madrid as a TEFL professor and CUID -- a Spanish university for distance education.

Faced with the choice of taking the wrong path like so many others he grew up around in the inner city, Brown said he realised from a very early age that education was his passport to a better life.

"At age 15 I wrote down on a piece of paper that I wanted to have five master's degrees because I read an article in the newspaper of a lady with five master's and I said, 'if she can do it, I can do it too'," he said.

As such, Brown said he applauded the Jamaica Observer for telling these stories so people can read and be inspired to excel.

"I grew up all my life surrounded by violence and with the possibility of doing the wrong things or taking drugs or something illegal, but my parents ensured that we had a strong belief in God and that we did the right things," said Brown, who explained that although he lived in such a tough community his life revolved solely around home, school and church.

Krishna Brown poses for a picture with his father Aston during his last
visit to Madrid along with friends, former Spanish Diplomat Ana
 Hernandez (left) and Spanish health and fitness expert Laly Ruiz.

Brown recalled his years growing up in a small house with his five siblings and having to study by candlelight either during the frequent power outages in his community or late nights when violence raged in the area.

"In the height of the violence I could not chance studying with the light on late at nights because you didn't want to alert gunmen to the fact that you were up for them to start shooting up the house, and so sometimes I would go to study under the bed," he recalled.

But from an early age he showed great academic ability as he was determined to follow in the footsteps of his brother, who was head boy at Kingston College (KC). more