YOUTHVILLE ISSUE #134
Friday, June 9, 2017
By Chidimma C. Okeke
Y
ou got scholarships for your secondary and university education. How did it happen? When I was in primary six, some people from Yar’adua Foundation in Abuja visited public schools in my state (Enugu), and I was lucky to have been chosen for a scholarship examination. I emerged as one of the winners of the scholarship from my state. The scholarship was to study at AUN Academy, formerly called ABTI Academy. I spent six years there and after my WAEC and JAMB, I was also offered another scholarship to AUN. That was how I came here and chose to study Petroleum Chemistry. The foundation pays our tuition, housing, feeding and other things and transport us back home. AUN academy has good facilities and it has given me a better chance to develop more than I would have had if I had gone to a conventional school. Coming from a different region, what were the challenges you faced? The first was the language barrier. Prior to coming here it was only English and Igbo that I could speak. I have had to learn how to speak Hausa.
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AUN BEST GRADUATE, IMMACULATA speaks:
Studying is hard; learn to o enjoy your course to attain success ccess Immaculata Onuigbo is the overall Best Graduate duate of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Class of 2017 with om the 4.00 the Cumulative Grade Point (CGP) of 3.98 from w she of America’s grading system. In this interview spoke on her scholarships, challenges and desire to be a professor. In academics, I had great teachers in my secondary school and when I needed help I asked for it. They made it very easy for me to excel academically so I didn’t have much problem. What do you derive from being a Honour Society member in AUN? The Honour Society concerns high standard of excellence especially academically. To be a member, you need a minimum CGP of 3.5, and to maintain your membership you have to work hard to at least be above that 3.5. It helped me to keep
my grade in check and one major thing is the scholarship programme that we do. What were your unique points to achieving success? I will say that I was lucky to have chosen something that I enjoy doing. No matter what, studying is actually hard, what makes it easier is if you are enjoying it, then you will feel less pain of studying and you will study at length to achieve success. I enjoyed what I was studying and I love learning; every day I learn a new thing. That was what helped me to keep the passion burning.
Innoson Academy: N/Delta trainees want educational tools By Latifat Opoola @LatifatOpoola Beneficiaries of Presidential Amnesty Programme undergoing training at the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Limited called on its sponsors to equip them with laptops and other education gadgets to ease their learning process. A trainee, Raphael Ajalaja spoke with Daily Trust YOUTHVILLE last Monday when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed visited the plant in Anambra state. He said the laptops were to be provided on their resumption to the programmes but since y “we resumed in February e when the Amnesty Office sent us here, we have not had laptops which it promised to deliver. “Our coordinators are trying their best to make sure that we get the laptops because it will help us in the ICT, entrepreneurship, and interpersonal skills and those things are dealing with laptops. We want the government to provide these things for us to make our training complete” he
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added. Ajalaja who spoke for the other trainees noted that the nine month intensive training will see them learn in the various fields of auto mechanical, painting, electrical welding and fabrication, but was worried what government has in store for them in terms of employment. “We cannot just go and sit at home after this training; let the government provide something that will empower us after the training,” he said. He urged the Amnesty Office to devise strategies of engaging the graduates of the programme to ensure they are employed and contributing to the growth of the economy.
You aspire to become a professor. What is the motivation behind this? I was not really sure of what I will do after university, but the Honour Society helped students that are academically challenged, so I participated in the tutorial aspect and I came to see that while I teach people I actual learn more. It gives me a
special kind of happiness when I know that someone now gets to know something because I helped that person, that was when I started thinking of venturing into the education world. I also have wonderful professors and the female ones are worth looking up to. I will be okay being a professor at a university.
Beauty Queen calls on Nigerians to be philanthropic By Pebang Danladi Queen of Peace Ambassadors, Ashley Mariam Yusuf, has called on Nigerians to give a helping hand to indigent children as this will in the long run lead to the development of the society. Ashley said the desire to support the less privileged kids came up from the fact that while growing up she also lacked some basic opportunities. She noted that her
foundation, Ashley Mariam Yusuf Foundation (AMYF) takes care of children who are less privileged, gives them relief materials, and also help some pay school fees, while adding that the event was the second to be organised by the foundation with the theme” Investing in today for tomorrow’s gain.” Speaking on the challenges of running a foundation Ashely said people often think you want to extort money from them,
“they do not understand the challenges. We have kids who are suffering I plead with individuals who are in high positions to listen and give a helping hand, it’s not just about feeding them we want to give out scholarships in other to promote the welfare of children and provide a platform for interaction and understanding among them.” The event was attended by pupils drawn from several schools in Abuja.
700m children robbed of childhood — Report By Judd-Leonard Okafor @judd_leonard A new report by the charity Save the Children says one in every four children are being denied a childhood. The Stolen Childhood report found up to 700 million children have had the promise of a full childhood brought to an early end— many of them in West and Central Africa despite recent progress in the last 30 years. “Although most of the lowest ranking countries are located in West and Central Africa, there are signs of hope and progress,” said Jim Emerson, regional director for the charity in West and
Central Africa. The charity blames extreme violence and conflict often driving families from their homes, early marriage and pregnancy, child labour, poor health and inability to go to school. For West and Central Africa, Save the Children highlighted early marriage as one of the “worst forms of child abuse, denying girls an education and often subjecting them to health consequences.” Today, around four in 10 girls are married before age 18 in both regions, down from five in 10 in 1990, but the practice still ends the childhoods of over a million girls in the region, according
to the charity. Stolen Childhoods reveals that early marriage rates and out-of-school rates tend to go hand-in-hand in West and Central Africa. “A girl who remains in school will be able to complete her education, creating the opportunity for a generation of future leaders and a positive cycle of progress for the region as a whole,” Emerson recommended. The charity has called on government to translate the African Union and UN commitments to end child marriage to “concrete, tangible and measurable actions.”