Nigerian immigrant studies Neuroscience and earns top academic honor at John Hopkins University

22 year-old Emmanuel Ohuabunwa has emerged as the best graduating student at John Hopkins University, with a grade point average of 3.98 out of 4.0 in Neurosciences.




Ohuabunwa who hails from Abia State, has been able to make the nation proud and with his efforts, has won a scholarship to Yale University to get a degree in Medicine.

He has also become a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, a prestigious honor group that features membership of 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Court Justices, and 136 Nobel Prize winners.

His fight against prejudice

Speaking about how he moved to the US, Ohuabunwa said “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 feces 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.

“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 worked very hard. It paid off. He scored so well on his PSAT that he won a scholarship.

He had also won the Principal’s Award during the annual awards ceremony at DeBakey High School.

“I studied Neuroscience, because I was fascinated with the brain, its control of our behaviours and how various diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, lead to a decline in its activity. I also minored in Psychology because I wanted to understand disorders in the psyche. What causes bipolar disorders or schizophrenia.

I did not just want to label them as crazy but to understand what causes these conditions and how we can treat them,’’ he explained.


http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/06/26/22-year-old-nigerian-breaks-academic-record-at-john-hopkins-university/