IYEYINKAAanu Oluwahan Omigbodun emerged the second best candidate in Nigeria in the 2011 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). In recognition of her worth, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) bestowed on her a merit award on Tuesday 27 March 2012 in Abuja. When the award ceremony was organised by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and announced at assembly in Louisville Girls High School, Ijebu-Itele, Ogun State, Nigeria (her Alma Marta), the news was not a surprise to staff and students of the school for it was expected. Her impeccable academic performance over the years had proved to the members of the academic community that she was worthy of the honour. She is one of the finest products of Louisville, Nigeria ever. She led her class in virtually all subject areas from JSS1, so it was not surprising that she topped the class (2011) in both WASSCE and IGCSE. She took the maximum number of subjects allowed both in IGCSE and WASSCE in her final year. Needless to say, her outstanding successful results in both examinations are the best the school has ever had.Before the award ceremony in Abuja, she had received provisional admission into nine top universities in the United States with full scholarships, some of which include Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Williams University; she opted for the prestigious Harvard University.The academic achievements of the seventeen-year-old native of Osun State have been consistent and many. She topped her class for all her six years in primary school and finished up as the Head Girl from 2004 to 2005. She was Winner of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) National Essay Competition for Primary Pupils in 2004, and in 2005 was 1st in English Language, 1st in Mathematics and 1st overall in the Oyo State Association of Proprietors and Proprietresses of Nursery and Primary Schools (Ibadan North Chapter) Preparatory Examination. Also in that year, she came 1st in Professor Adedeji Awoniyi Educational Consultancies Preparatory Examination in South-West Nigeria.At Louisville, she was known for her giftedness in public speaking and effectiveness in writing. Despite her consistently brilliant performance in science examinations, she was marvellously sound in creative writing, a fact attested to by her emergence as Winner, Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Prose-fiction (teen category) in 2011. Her literary creativity led to the founding of Young Writers' Club in Louisville Girls High School, Ijebu-Itele, and was president of the club for two years, 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011. As an avid reader, she emerged the school's choice of Student Librarian of her set. Her award- winning short story, The Country I Love, is a major feature of Blossoms, an anthology of prose-fiction and poetry published by Louisville Girls High School in 2010. The short story together with a collection of poems, Waiting for Justice and Peace has since been published on the stable of Nelson Publishers Limited.Her eloquence at Louisville did not come as a surprise as she had been Child Broadcaster, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, on the International Children's Day of Broadcasting in 2003 and 2004. Building on her excellent yearly performance at Louisville, she got eight distinctions (including mathematics and English) in the May/June 2011 West African Senior Secondary Examination and had the second best result for Nigeria in the examination. Her performance in the 2011 Cambridge International General Certificate for Secondary Education (IGCSE) Examination was a feat ' 6A* and 1A. Her performance in the 2011 Scholarship Aptitude Test (SAT) speaks volume of her genius. In SAT 1, she got the maximum 800 points in Mathematics and in Reading, and 750 points in Critical Reading. In SAT 2, she got 800 out of 800 in Chemistry, 780 out of 800 in Mathematics (level 2), and 760 out of 800 in Physics.Iyeyinka's teachers from JSS 1 through SS 3 would readily say she was a highly motivated student, one a teacher would love teaching. She is a humble, well-rounded student, who was generous with her intellect, talents, time and possessions. It is worthy of note that she 'coming from a very supportive home of sound academics: Professor Akinyinka Omigbodun and Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, (both of the University of Ibadan) ' was true to her pedigree, with even higher prospects, in pursuing the most rigorous academic course programme in Louisville. Interestingly, her mother, Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, the first female Professor of Psychiatry in Nigeria, is an old student of St. Louis Grammar School, Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.Iyeyinka combines the scientist's uncanny exactitude, and the artist's aesthetic idiosyncratic abilities to qualify as brainy. Yet she is not the brain without a heart; she gives herself unreservedly to humanity. At Louisville Girls High School, she was always at the Learning Resource Centre, tutoring other students towards understanding elusive concepts. The many she taught would agree she is an embodiment of help, more than generous with her time and intelligence. She understands that success is not about just getting all the best grades but about helping others realise their goals. She was and remains what you would call a team-leader and team-server. After graduation and in furtherance of the principles of the humanitarian Bridge-of-Care Project initiated by the pioneer principal of Louisville Girls High School, Sr. Rita Akin-Otiko ssl, Iyeyinka Omigbodun started a reading club, Readers Are Leaders, in a low-income neighbourhood of Ibadan. If Nigeria is plagued by an abysmal reading culture, she understands it will take her and others like her to turn things around, knowing that hardship is an impediment to mass literacy. Young, she fights the good fight, a worthy ambassador of that one school' Louisville Girls High School' where selflessness and service are a way of life.Her participation in co-curricular activities at Louisville Girls High School beats disputing. At Louisville, physical development goes together with the cognitive; that aspect of education the school did not deny her, and she made the most of it. When it came to sports, she was alive on the track and on the court and actively took part in long-distance races as well as lawn tennis. She got silver in the 1,500m race during the 2011 edition of Louisville Inter-House Sports Competition. Besides sports, she equally loved music. Indeed, the world knows only few like her who are as artistic as they are scientific. As Albert Einstein loved numbers and the violin; she loved numbers and the piano. As the school's pianist, she weaved wonders with the instrument.Born on 31st May 1995 in Philadephia, USA, and educated at Fourman University Nursery School in Leeds, UK (1998-1999) and at WestPrime Model School in Ibadan, Nigeria (1999-2005), Iyeyinka Omigbodun could not have got her secondary education from any school better than the prestigious Louisville Girls High school, founded on 19th January 1998 with the sole aim of grooming future women of integrity in conformity to the long established tradition of holistic education for the girl-child that St. Louis schools are known for the world over.Like Omigbodun, many other girls have benefitted from the Value Added Education (VAT) for which the school is known. The high-quality teaching she received in LGHS cannot be overemphasized. LGHS offers a totally student-friendly environment conducive to learning. The achievements of her students in higher institutions and in different fields of endeavour attest to this.Iyeyinka Omigbodun's success story is no doubt the result of diligence, faith, effective upbringing, and excellent education, which only a school as Louisville Girls High School can offer. On this path she has chosen, few would disagree that the sky is, indeed, her beginning.Mark Akinola, Kene Okafor and Akinpelumi Oluwadunsin are of Louisville Girls High School, Ijebu-Itele, Ogun State.www.louisvilleitele.edu.ng
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