Benny Jones celebrating with friends and supporters from the Waihi community. Photo / Supplied
Benny Jones celebrating with friends and supporters from the Waihi community. Photo / Supplied
Waihi's Benny Jones, at just 38, last week celebrated becoming an enrolled barrister and solicitor of the High Court in Hamilton, sharing her accomplishment as an immigrant single mother with HC Post editor Alison Smith.
You migrated to New Zealand from West Africa in 2011. What brought you to Waihi specifically?
I had a job at SGS New Zealand Mineral Services Waihi.
What were your first impressions of Waihi?
People were very warm and curious as well. People were so nice compared to other cities that I've been to, they were very friendly and helpful. I'd walk down the street and people would enquire about my African braids, some people would touch my skin and ask 1001 questions. I feel like I'm part of the community and everyone knows me. I must be the only African woman in Waihi.
I was made redundant in 2013. I've never had any family other than my husband at the time and my oldest daughter, Cindy, 11. After my redundancy I had a second daughter, Michele, and then came my divorce, and it was like everything was happening at the same time. I had a 10-month-old and a less-than-5-year-old daughter, you can imagine the challenge.
That would have been really tough times. Did you get any help?
I think because I had completely relied on my husband I didn't know much about New Zealand at that time, so coming out of that was really hard. Later on I was able to get some sort of government support, which came about through my midwife who put me in touch with an agency that could help support me. I also had friends within the community by then, who helped in their own little way.
Coming from a divorce without family support, I decided to challenge myself to a career in law. It was like being dropped in the middle of the sea, and having to swim to the shore. That's what I did. I knew I had to somehow rescue myself and do what I had to do and move on with life and look after my two precious girls.
Why did you decide on law?
Through the divorce we ended up in court and went through the custody of the children which took us almost three years. I remembered the lawyer presenting what I'd written without changing anything, and I thought 'maybe I could do this as a profession'.
I also wanted to stay home for my girls without wasting time, and looked at online courses I could do and found I could study law with the University of Waikato online. I studied it for four years and graduated in 2020, went on to study a professional legal training course to become a lawyer. I was admitted as an enrolled barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand last month. Now I'm doing my masters in applied law and a graduate diploma in law as well.
Benny Jones has big aspirations after making it to the court thanks to perserverance and the support of the Waihi community. Photo / Supplied
Where do you want to go with your career?
I want to be a family lawyer, and want an opportunity to be an in-house counsel and work with a government agency, which is why I decided to do the masters. In future, I'd like to one day be a Family Court judge.
How has your experience been so far?
There's so much to learn about the legal system. The justice system is always improving, and with changes happening around the world my interest has always been with children and children's rights and women in New Zealand so I'm going to continue striving towards that in my career.
How do you find New Zealand in its treatment of women in the workplace?
I did discover initially that women have to take the back seat in the workplace in New Zealand, but I think a lot of that is changing now.
Benny Jones' achievement in being admitted to the New Zealand High Court was celebrated by members of her Nigerian community. Photo / Supplied
What would you say to other women about following your dreams?
I guess I would say there's just no limit to what you can do if you don't allow yourself to be fearful. Often we fear not succeeding and so don't try at all. I've never been a person to be held back and always like to challenge myself, and when I feel I have to take a different path I use that learning to forge ahead. My advice would be not to let fear stop you from pursuing your dreams.
I want the whole community to celebrate with me, because being a migrant woman with no family support in New Zealand and to rise to where I am, it's worth celebrating. I relied on the goodwill of my Waihi community and my friends for a support network. Family are not always about blood.
I had to travel from Waihi every day to Hamilton to attend my lectures five days a week for four years, with little or no money and sometimes going without so that I can save a bit of money for petrol to get me to uni. It meant I had to rely on other people to help me with my kids or give me time to do an assignment.
The Catholic Church were also there to help me where they could.
The good people of Waihi are a big part of my success.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and I am excited, humbled and honoured to see this journey come to an end.
What would you say to the single mums out there or others struggling to find the strength to give a challenge a go?
I could have chosen to be down, but I believe we shouldn't allow our circumstances to dictate what your future should be. Push yourself until you get there, which is what I did. Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success. It is said that a "dream does not become a reality through magic it takes sweat, determination, and hard work". It took me countless hours of hard work, perseverance, enthusiasm, motivation, faith, tears and the willingness to succeed to finally get me where I wanted to be and reaching my milestone accomplishment.
The Nigerian community came together in Hamilton shortly after the court admission and it was so beautiful to see the community acknowledge my hard work. I also had my friends in Waihi last week celebrate, with another ceremony for me which was so special.
