Her story is as inspiring as it is instructive. Coming from a family of, as she described it, “modest average income” from a small town called Ngwo, in Enugu North Local Government of Enugu State, Ms. Immaculata Onyinye Onuigbo has risen, much through Providence, to emerge the Class of 2017 Valedictorian of the prestigious American University of Nigeria, Yola.
One day while she was still in Primary 6, one of her teachers, a certain Mrs. Chibuoke, died and she and her classmates were mourning. On the day the teacher’s body was laid to rest, two representatives from the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation, whom she later got to know were Ms. Rose Ugorji and Mr. Darren Venn, came to the school to select the best boy and the best girl for a scholarship award examination.
She recounted: “What made this opportunity particularly special for me was because while I was in Primary 5, a couple of well-wishers had advised that I skipped Primary 6 because, to them, I would be just fine going straight to secondary school. Thank God that I was able to convince myself then that there was absolutely no need to rush.”
She was chosen for the scholarship examination alongside one of her friends, Franklin Aziujali, also from Enugu State.
It was at this point in her life that she met Madam Jacqueline W. Farris (Director-General of the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation) and Chief Dubem Onyia, a member of the board of trustees of the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation, who coincidentally also hails from her village.
These people, she recalled, strongly influenced her life positively and constantly supported and mentored her.
Winning the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation Merit Scholarship and starting her secondary school education at the AUN Academy was the turning point of her life.
She also recalled the influence of her great teachers in secondary school, and especially one late Ms. Krista McKee, whose belief in her she said made her believe more in herself.
“I can remember her words to me during my secondary school graduation: She told me, ‘Dear Immaculata, you are a beautiful and brilliant young woman. May God provide you with all you need to live to your full potential. I know you are invincible.’ These words have helped me grow into a woman she would have been very proud of.”
After secondary school graduation, Immaculata was once again fortunate to be awarded a full university scholarship to study Petroleum Chemistry at AUN, where, according to her, she met people that added great value to her life.
Giving her speech as the best graduating student of the 2017 set, entitled, ‘The Gold in Us’, Immaculata said she had to tell her story to show that “a story of one is a story of all, and a story of all is a story of one.”
“If there is one message I hope to have successfully passed across by my story, it is that where one comes from is not the sole determinant of the height one can attain in life.
“After today’s Class of 2017, we will be faced with the realities of adult life like graduate school applications, job search, marriage and so on; and probably, many of us graduating today have already started asking ourselves questions such as: ‘What is my next step in life?’ ‘How do I move on from AUN?’ ‘Who can I become?’ I may not have all the answers you may need, but one thing I am sure of however, is that as we have come this far, we can still go very far in life.
“There are some graduating today that if asked where they see themselves in the next five years, they will be able to say exactly what they will be doing – they have it all figured out already. To me, this is a commendable quality. On the other hand, there are some that literally do not know the next steps after today are.
“In order to suggest an answer to the big question of ‘how do we truly know what our next steps should be?’ I will like to refer to a chart – in the form of a Venn diagram – that I once saw and that illustrates how to discover one’s dream job. The diagram had four circles. In the first was talent (what you are good at), second was passion (what you love doing), third was career (what can earn you money), and at the centre of the three was the fourth circle written ‘your dream job’. It really sparked my interest because, to me, this illustration had a lot to say.
“We are very lucky to be graduating from a school that provides students with diverse platforms. Throughout our stay in AUN, we must have all been involved in one or two activities, be it Students Government Association, Campus Activities Board, tutorials, graphic designs, business management exercises and the like.
“I believe that while partaking in one or two of the aforementioned activities, we may have discovered that we have a special interest in one or more of those activities. Who knows, this could just be your talent and passion.
“After you have successfully identified where your talent and passion lies, next is to look for things you need to do to strengthen your talent. These could be: postgraduate studies in a particular field, going for special trainings, being self-taught and so on.
“Furthermore, I urge you all to note that what you studied in school must not be what you continue with, should you find a passion outside what you studied in school. Remember, interest drives passion and passion is what keeps us forging ahead against all challenges – and believe me, life is filled with challenges. Passion has helped great inventors to improve our world immensely compared to what it was decades ago. If it has helped them, it can help us greatly too.”
and then