Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Keeping everything on track
FAU standout balances motherhood, academics and lots of miles
BOCA RATON — On a typical day, Jamika Glades wakes up at 6:30 a.m. Her son, Anthony Jennings III, gets ready for school, and Glades takes him to his secondgrade classes. Later in the day, they will reunite. They’ll cook and eat dinner. They’ll watch television.
Anthony does homework. So does Glades.
Glades, 23, is a Florida Atlantic University track standout working toward a master’s degree in taxation. Anthony, 8, will soon watch his third commencement ceremony — after seeing his mother graduate from Dillard High School and the University of Miami.
“I have those moments where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is too much,’ ” Glades said. “Just remember that I’m doing it not only for myself but also for him.”
Glades gave birth to Anthony when she was 14. She didn’t have a secure place to live. Her family wanted her to get a job and quit track.
“I made this connection with this child . ... You got someone growing in you for so long.” Jamika Glades
Now, Glades is on target to receive her master’s in December. Last year, she completed a four-year stint on Miami’s track team on a full scholarship. Glades will compete for the Owls in Conference USA’s Outdoor Championships this weekend, hoping to qualify for the NCAA East Regional.
Track is a significant part of Glades’ life, but Anthony remains paramount.
Glades describes Anthony as “goofy and outgoing.” He’ll sprint across a tennis court to leap over a chain-link fence. He’ll stop to admire a nearby ladybug. He’ll wrap his mother in a hug and lift her off the ground to prove that he can.
“He likes to dance,” Glades said. “He tries to make jokes all time, but he’s not funny. He’s very loving. Very outgoing. I’m more timid, so I don’t know where he got that from.”
Glades didn’t take a pregnancy test until she was already five months pregnant. Externally, her body wasn’t showing many signs of pregnancy. She continued to play flag football as eighth grade ended. In her mind, Glades knew something was different, but instead settled into denial.
A pregnancy test erased all doubt. Glades was 14 and pregnant.
“A lot of disappointment from different family members and even myself, because I’m hard on myself,” Glades said. ‘ “What am I going to do? I’m not going to college anymore. I can’t do sports anymore.’ A bunch of different thoughts coming in and out.”
Glades’ mother could barely take care of the family, Glades recalled. Now they would have to provide for another person.
“I made this connection, I’m crying, I made this connection with this child,” Glades said. “I want to keep him and face my responsibilities. It was more of a connection. I didn’t want to let it go because you got someone growing in you for so long.”
Glades’ father was not “really in my life to begin with.” Her mother’s job struggles forced her to bounce from place to place growing up. Glades estimated she lived in about five different places, both before and after giving birth to Anthony, though she doesn’t know the exact number.
That’s when Kelly Johnson stepped in.
Johnson was a longtime friend of Glades’ mother who worked at a neighborhood day care and knew Glades since she was in second grade. One day, she saw a Facebook post by Glades that seemed like a cry for help. Johnson offered a lifeline.
“She was just saying that she’s tired that she doesn’t have a home,” Johnson said. “Every other month, they were being put out, evicted. … I asked her if she’d want to come stay with me, and before I even finished the sentence, she said yes. I stayed in a twobedroom, one-bathroom apartment at the time, but we made it work.”
Johnson has two kids of her own and also looked after a nephew. She welcomed Glades and Anthony into her home; Glades enrolled at Dillard. Glades previously attended Seagull Alternative High School — before and after Anthony’s birth — for her freshman year and part of her sophomore year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, only about 50 percent of teenage mothers get their high school diploma by age 22. Seagull, a public school, transported pregnant students and teenage mothers to school and ran a day care center to look after the children during the school day, to try to make it easier for teen moms. When Glades enrolled at Dillard, Johnson took Anthony to the day care where she worked.
“When I see children that are in need, I don’t hesitate,” Johnson said.
Glades lived with Johnson through the remainder of high school before earning a track scholarship at Miami. Anthony stayed with Johnson for the first two years Glades attended UM, but joined his mother for her junior year of college.
At Miami, Glades won an ACC outdoor title in 2014 in the 400-meter hurdles by finishing in 57.70 seconds. She was also part of the Hurricanes’ 4x400 relay team that won an ACC indoor title in 2014. After graduating from Miami and transferring to FAU, Glades runs both events and the 100-meter hurdles for the Owls.
She enters the Conference USA Championship among the favorites to win the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles. Her 100-meter hurdles time (13.62 seconds) is third among conference runners, while her 400-meter hurdles time (58.65) ranks second.
Glades credits Dillard track coach Davidson Gill for her mental toughness. Gill forced her to run cross- country to push her pain tolerance. He asked her to revamp her diet to retool her body.
Johnson and Gill became Glades’ mother and father figures. To Gill, Glades’ maturation and motivation stood out, so making the transition to college an easy one.
“She didn’t really have to change who she was,” Gill said. “She just had to be herself and everything fell into place.”
Anthony, meanwhile, attends all the local meets he can to watch his mother run — and to socialize, of course.
“Once he’s there, I don’t see him until the end of the meet, because he knows everyone and is social, so he talks to everyone,” Glades said. “He probably has more friends than me. Even here [at FAU], I brought him to practice a couple times here and he’s so social and says ‘Hi’ to everyone.”
Glades has begun studying to become a certified public accountant and will begin a job at the accounting firm RSM in Fort Lauderdale in January. She previously interned there.
“If you give her a path, she’s going to try to do that path, no matter how hard it is, to the best of her ability,” Johnson said.