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| Emmanuel Ohuabunwa |
A
22-year-old Nigerian has emerged the best graduating student of John Hopkins
University in the United States. He obtained a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out
of a possible 4.0 to earn a degree in Neurosciences…
PUNCH’S SEGUN OLUGBILE writes:
A 22-year-old Nigerian, Emmanuel
Ohuabunwa, has made history at John Hopkins University, United States of
America. Ohuabunwa from Arochukwu, Abia
State, has done the nation proud by becoming the first black man to make a
Grade Point Average of 3.98 out of 4.0 to bag a degree in Neurosciences in the
university. He was also adjudged as having the highest honours during the
graduation that was held on May 24 this year.
For his efforts, he has won a
scholarship to Yale University to pursue a degree in medicine. Besides, he has
been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society, a prestigious honour group that
features membership of 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Court Justices, and 136
Nobel Prize winners.
According to Wikipedia, The Phi Beta
Kappa Society is an academic honour society. Its mission is to “celebrate and
advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences” and induct “the most
outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and
universities.”
It was founded at The College of William and
Mary on December 5, 1776, and thus it is the oldest honour society for the
liberal arts and sciences and among the oldest undergraduate societies in the
US.
In an online interview with our
correspondent, Ohuabunwa, who was born in Okota, Lagos and attended Lilly
Fields Primary School, Lagos, said he left Nigeria after his junior secondary
school education at Air Force Comprehensive School, Ibadan, Oyo State.
“My parents moved the whole family
when I was 13 years old. I was about to begin SS1 at Air Force, Ibadan. When I
got to the US, I was enrolled with my age mates, which meant at 13, I was in
middle school. I went to Fondren Middle School, which was in the middle of the
ghetto. That was one of the darkest years for me because I encountered a lot of
peer pressure. Some of the students, ignorant about Africa, bullied me and
called me names such as ‘African booty scratcher’ because to them, Africans
were dirty and scratched their butts all the time.
“Some asked me if I lived in mud
huts and ate faeces for breakfast. I remember one day, when I was walking to
the school bus, a boy came from behind and punched me in the face, called me an
African and walked away. It took everything in me not to retaliate. I knew that
God had put me in the U.S for a purpose and it did not involve fighting or
selling drugs or doing the wrong things.
“My experience during that year gave
me a thick skin. I learned to stand for what I thought was right even when the
opposition seemed insurmountable. I also learned to look at the positive in all
situations. Even though these kids were bullying me, I was still gaining an
opportunity to school in America and nothing would stop me from making the best
of this opportunity.
“The shocker was that the kid that
punched me in the face was black. I would have expected the blacks to be nicer
to me. Nevertheless, I don’t blame those kids because they were ignorant about
Africa. All they knew about us was the stuff they had watched on TV or
documentaries, showing primitive African tribes, living in the jungle and
making noises like monkeys.
“In regards to the whites, there might have
been some minor episodes but again I don’t blame them for it because it is a
problem with stereotypes,” he said.
But in spite of this humiliation and
racial prejudice against him, the first in a family of three was not
discouraged. He faced his studies and was always coming top in his class. After
he completed his middle school education, he passed the entrance examination to
DeBakey High School for Health Professions. It was at this school that his
interest in neurosciences and medicine started.
“By the second year of high school,
we were able to interact with doctors, nurses and other administrators in the
hospital. The more I learned about medicine, the more it felt like the thing
God was calling me to pursue and by being in the US I got a lot of people to
support me to do this. Even though in high school, I got to see first-hand what
it meant to be a doctor. We studied advanced anatomy and physiology, learned
medical terminology, and learned important skills, such as checking blood
pressure, pulse rate, and many more.
“I knew I wanted to go to the best
school in the US. I had heard that Johns Hopkins Hospital had been ranked the
number one hospital in the US for the past 21 years and I wanted to be in that
environment.’’
Worried that his parents might not
be able to sponsor him to the university, Ohuabunwa purposed to work very hard.
He did and when the result of the PSAT came, he performed so well that he won
the National Achievement Scholar.
By virtue of this award, he received
certificates of recognition from various organisations including senators from
the Congress of both Texas and the US. He also received scholarship from the
University of Houston; Rice University, Texas A&M Honors College and many
more.
He had also won the Principal’s Award
during the annual awards ceremony at DeBakey High Sch
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