14 YEAR OLD UGONNA WON 12 PRIZES OUT OF 21 CATEGORIES, EMERGED THE BEST STUDENT

Ugonna Agu, a 14-year-old stu­dent of the Vivian Fowler Memo­rial College for Girls in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, was the cynosure of all eyes at the recent Junior Secondary School graduation ceremony of the col­lege.

She won 12 of the 21 categories of prizes presented to outstanding students in various subjects. The students will move to the se­nior secondary arm of the school in the next academic session that will commence in Sep­tember.

Ugonna emerged the best student in Lagos Studies, Home Economics, Civic Education, Basic Science, Physical and Health Educa­tion, Igbo Language, Business Studies, Mu­sic, Social Studies, Agricultural Science and Basic Technology. Also, she jointly won the best prize in English Language with Chloe Onerhime.

Miss Michelle Madubuike, who won the best prizes in French and Fine Art, came second. Five other students also emerged subject prize winners in five categories. They are Abisola Akinsete – Mathematics, Ama­rachukwu Nwangwu – Computer Science, Imann Bashorun – Yoruba Language, Debo­rah Esevohare – Christian Religious Knowl­edge (CRK), and Hameedah Oba – Islamic Religious Studies.

Also, two students, Olamide Majilagbe and Anjolaoluwa Olawuyi, were honoured with awards as Best Behaved Student and Best Groomed Student respectively. The cer­emony was held at the school premises.

An award of excellence was also presented by the college to the President, Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), and Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Publishing Lim­ited, Mr. Femi Adesina, who chaired the cer­emony, for his meritorious contributions to the practice of journalism.

Also garlanded with awards were Mrs. May Mbu, Senior Lawyer, Norfolk Partners, Lagos for her contributions to the law pro­fession and Dr. Ademola Ademuson, a den­tal surgeon and pastor at the Guiding Light Assembly, Lagos for his contributions to the medical field. Mbu was the special guest of honour while Ademuson was the guest min­ister and his wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Enitan Ademu­son was the mother-of-the-day.

The proprietoress of the 23-year-old col­lege, Chief (Mrs) Leila Fowler; chairperson, Vivian Fowler Parent-Teacher Forum, Mrs. Shade Tayo, and an executive of the forum, Chief Sore Osibodu, were among the digni­taries that graced the ceremony.

In a welcome address presented by Miss Kigi Charles, one of the graduating students, she thanked the school, parents and guardians for their investments on them. While thank­ing the guests for honouring them, she said the ceremony was one of the special days in their lives.

Managing Director of The Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Adesina, in his opening address, noted that Nigeria needed redemption. The redemption, according to him, must be done by people that had been properly groomed, adding that it behoved on the students after they had been groomed by the college to re­deem the country in all spheres of life.

“I believe Nigeria needs redemption. We can see what is happening all around us. We just know we have a country. If our country is going to be redeemed, we would need people who have been properly groomed to redeem this country.

“Here in this hall today, we have a set of people that have been well brought up. When they finish here, they would go into the world and make impressions. These ones will go and make a difference in leadership, in their professions, in the society and whichever area they find themselves, I believe they will be great ambassadors of this college,” he stated.

Adesina also highlighted some of the es­sential ingredients that the pupils must have in order to prosper and become world chang­ers. According to him, the girls should re­solve to be virtuous ladies, have godliness because they could not amount to anything without God, be honest, have integrity with­out compromising it, be hard-working, de­velop a can-do spirit and never give up until they have succeeded.

In his ministration, Pastor (Dr.) Ademuson of the Guiding Light Assembly, made a refer­ence to the Book of Esther in the Holy Bible and told a story of how Queen Esther was a virtuous lady, adding that there was God’s factor in her life.

The cleric quoted from Matthew 22: 37-40, and enjoined the pupils to love God, put Him first in their endeavours and love their neighbours as themselves. He also cautioned them to seek the will of God on their indi­vidual ambitions.

“But let your passion for whatever you want to become be to serve God and add values to humanity, not what you can get for yourself alone,” Ademuson said.

After the sermon, the Quality Assurance Officer of the college, Mrs. Niyatha Krish­nan, officially presented the Class of 2014 to the gathering. This was followed by a roll call of the pupils, award of prizes and certificates of merit to outstanding students.

The best student in the Class of 2014, Ugonna Agu, told Daily Sun: “I got admis­sion into this college in 2011. I never knew I could come this far because in primary school, I was never this good. But when I came to secondary school, I realised that with God, all things are possible. I put my mind to it and by God’s grace, I made it.”

Ugonna, who described herself as one that “plays basketball for recreation purposes,” stated that her secret of success was God, even as she too played her own part. Ac­cording to her, “I study immediately a note is given to me so that I don’t have a lot piled up for me to read and I understand as I read.”

Her ambition is to become a civil engineer because of her passion to improve the condi­tion of roads and buildings in the country.

Ugonna’s mother, Mrs. Ozioma Agu, was glad that her daughter made the family proud. She described her as a child that Nigeria, Viv­ian Fowler College and the world would cel­ebrate.

“She was admitted into the college in 2011 and in the first half term, she came second in her class. We told her, ‘if you can come sec­ond, that means you can come first.’ We al­ways encourage her and she works hard. Ev­ery spare time she has, she’s always reading.

“Ugonna also believes in her teachers and sees all her subject teachers as her mentors. She prays for herself every day. Her second name is Favour and she prays often that: God, my name is Favour, father you will show me favour.”

The happy mother, however, advised par­ents and guardians to monitor what their chil­dren and wards do on the social media, add­ing that cutting them off Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites would draw them back in this age.

“If possible, have their passwords. I have passwords of my children’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter and so on. I watch and read them. if I see anybody going haywire, I’ll call your attention, sit you down and pun­ish you when I’m supposed to,” Mrs Agu stated.

Mother-of-the-Day, Dr. (Mrs) Ademuson, prayed that God would give them the grace to excel in life. She urged them to be hard-working, fear God, keep moving and never settle for nothing.

Responding on behalf of the special awardees, the Senior Lawyer, Norfolk Part­ners, Lagos, Mrs Mbu, thanked the college for the awards and advised the pupils to be wary of how they used the social media.

“They should believe in themselves, have mentors, be thankful to God always and be positive, even at difficult times,” she said.

The director of the school, Mrs Funke Fowler-Amba, in her vote of thanks, enjoined the pupils to tell the truth always, be passion­ate in everything and be disciplined.

Highlights of the Junior Secondary School graduation ceremony included choir and solo renditions, a valedictory speech by Ugonna Agu, a performance by the school orchestra and cutting of the graduation cake.

Source; The Sun