MAHAYLIA Griffith hopes to one day add to the quality of TT's theatre arts industry and is assiduously building on her academic foundation to help her with that cultural contribution.

The 18-year-old Bishops Anstey and Trinity College East (BATCE) sixth form student was recently awarded a Capstone Merit Scholarship to attend Howard University - ranked among the top three HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges/Universities) in the US. But the scholarship will only cover part of her tuition needs and the aspiring musical theatre performer has to come up with the difference.

'I obtained a partial scholarship and a needs-based scholarship that covered two thirds of my tuition. So currently I am in search of one third of my tuition and my room and board fee which would be entirely about US$20,000. But I had fundraisers since the year began and planning to make Go Fund Me and other ways people could help.

'Tuition is usually US$31,000 (each academic year) at Howard and I received $15,000 in an academic scholarship and around $6,500 in a needs-based scholarship.'

Griffith plans to major in musical theatre at the Chadwick Boseman School of the Arts. She had applied to seven universities and was accepted into four. Howard was her top-pick.

Griffith told WMN it wasn't always her goal to attend a US university and had her heart set on attending a university in the UK. But after doing her research she felt Howard was the right fit for her.

'I saw the kind of community that HBCU's, which are predominantly what black schools have - it was very comforting to see. Howard is the top HBCU in the States and for performing arts there are notable alumni like Chadwick Boseman and Taraji P Henson, and right now my dean would be Phylicia Rashad.

'The number of alumni they have for theatre arts and the community made me comfortable enough to apply, and once I got accepted I just fell more in love with the school…There are a lot of Caribbean people there so I would not feel isolated.'

The Arima native said she was inspired to pursue musical theatre after watching the Grammy, Tony and Emmy award-winning musical Hamilton which notably features a culturally diverse cast.

'I was exposed to a world of performing arts with characters that looked like me and the story was portrayed through rap, R&B and jazz. The comfort I felt from watching the musical gave me a sense of hope for a possible career in the musical theatre field.'

The ambitious teen hopes to make her West End and Broadway theatre debut by age 26 and said she wants to 'expand a once white, male-dominated industry to the black diaspora and Caribbean region.'

Griffith envisages a theatre future in TT that uses musical and theatrical elements to tell the 'tales of the land' with folklore stories and/or historical events.

'While using the cultural phenomena like folk dance, calypso and steel pan to name a few, we can make a bright future for the performing arts industry and create a thriving musical theatre industry.'

Griffith began her journey in the performin