Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

In the qui­et, wind­ing stretch of Guayagua­yare Road, where co­conut trees cast shad­ows over child­hood dreams, a young girl once danced bare­foot in her yard—un­aware that her pas­sion for move­ment and her love for chil­dren would one day rip­ple across class­rooms, com­mu­ni­ties and Caribbean stages. To­day, that girl is Nel­isha “Ny­la” Mo­hammed, new­ly named TTUTA Young Teacher of the Year 2025 for the South East­ern Dis­trict, and a ris­ing force in ed­u­ca­tion and cul­ture.

Mo­hammed’s jour­ney is root­ed deeply in her com­mu­ni­ty. Grow­ing up in Rio Claro, she learned ear­ly the pow­er of nur­tur­ing young minds.

“I want­ed to work with chil­dren so I could make a pos­i­tive and last­ing dif­fer­ence in their lives,” she re­flects. “When you sup­port a child—emo­tion­al­ly, aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, or cre­ative­ly—you shape their en­tire fu­ture.”

That call­ing guid­ed her through her stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, where she earned a Bach­e­lor of Ed­u­ca­tion in Spe­cial Needs, and lat­er in­to the class­rooms of Rio Claro Pres­by­ter­ian, Biche Sec­ondary, and now Tor­rib Trace Pres­by­ter­ian School.

But Mo­hammed is far more than a teacher. She is a men­tor, an artist, a cul­tur­al ad­vo­cate—and a be­liev­er in the pow­er of op­por­tu­ni­ty. Through her vol­un­teerism as a 4-H Club leader, she has em­pow­ered stu­dents to shine in gar­den, food preser­va­tion, poster and po­et­ry com­pe­ti­tions, lift­ing the school’s pro­file and build­ing con­fi­dence in her young charges. Her in­flu­ence con­tin­ues on the cul­tur­al stage, where she pre­pares stu­dents for Best Vil­lage, Christ­mas con­certs, and even the school choir fea­tured on Mo­ments of In­spi­ra­tion.

Be­yond the class­room, Mo­hammed’s artistry flour­ish­es. As the artis­tic di­rec­tor of the Danc­ing Shak­ti Sis­ters Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, she has per­formed across Trinidad & To­ba­go—from ma­jor show­cas­es like Chut­ney So­ca Monarch (CSM) to cul­tur­al fes­ti­vals through­out the Caribbean, in­clud­ing Grena­da, Ja­maica and Guyana un­der the NCIC ban­ner. Her artis­tic ré­sumé spans Mas­tana Ba­har, Miss Nat­u­ral­ly Fair, NCIC Youth Champs, and mul­ti­ple youth tal­ent com­pe­ti­tions.

Still, her heart re­mains an­chored in ser­vice. She found­ed the Danc­ing Sis­ters Sports and Cul­tur­al Group, lends her lead­er­ship to the Rio Claro Pres­by­ter­ian Church as sec­re­tary, and con­tin­ues to guide youth through litur­gi­cal dance and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties.

For Mo­hammed, Rio Claro is not just home—it is a vi­sion.

“I hope to see Rio Claro of­fer even more op­por­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren,” she says. “Bet­ter fa­cil­i­ties, af­ter-school pro­grammes, cul­tur­al clubs, youth groups—every child de­serves the tools to reach their fullest po­ten­tial.”

Her mes­sage is sim­ple but pow­er­ful, a phi­los­o­phy that has shaped her life’s work: “Chil­dren should al­ways bloom where they are plant­ed.”

And through her teach­ing, her art, and her un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to youth, Nel­isha “Ny­la” Mo­hammed is help­ing an en­tire com­mu­ni­ty bloom right along with them.