Representing Nigeria well

Tolu Alabi is a graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa.  She is a recipient of the Stanford Africa MBA Fellowship.  Joseph Ekpenyoung studied math at Bates College in Maine and is now giving back by teaching math at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa.  Daniel Akuma attended Kenyon College in Ohio and got accepted into the top eight medical schools in the United States.

What is common among these three young Nigerians?  They are all beneficiaries of the Opportunity Fund Program, popularly referred to as EducationUSA Achievers Program (EdSAP) of the U.S. Embassy Abuja.  The program assists highly qualified but low-income students to finance upfront costs of obtaining admission into U.S. universities with full financial aid.  One common feature of all three is that they went to public schools, including Federal Government Academy Suleja and Model Secondary school.

Time to Read

By correctly spelling the word “descendant” young Mma won the spelling bee competition for children ages eight to ten years.  This was at the closing ceremony of this year’s summer reading program for kids organized by the American Corner Abuja in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy.

For two weeks the children engaged in different reading activities.  They read books, engaged in reading and writing poems, attended story telling sessions and even some arts and crafts classes.  The sum of the activities reaffirmed and helped the children see that reading could be lots of fun.