A billboard featuring her academic achievements at Rutgers was erected on a busy thoroughfare in the community of Trench Town, Kingston Jamaica. Trench Town is a low-income, volatile neighborhood in the heart of the capital city and was her hometown before migrating to the U.S. to pursue doctoral studies on a scholarship from the Rutgers University Department of Geography.
The billboard is part of an initiative by the leader of the People's National Party (one of the two major political parties in Jamaica) Mark Golding with the purpose of inspiring youth, particularly those from marginalized communities where she is from, to strive for academic excellence as a means of upward social mobility. Since then, photos of the billboard have gone viral on social media being shared hundreds of times turning the spotlight on not only Tashana but also Rutgers University.
Tashana recently successfully defended her dissertation and has since been thrusted into the spotlight once more as Jamaica's gaze turns to her research. She has consistently been receiving enquiries on studies at Rutgers University and has done two radio interviews with Jamaica's oldest and largest broadcasting network, Radio Jamaica (RJR 94 FM) with other interviews scheduled.
