The United States
Chapter, Great Ife Alumni Association, has awarded scholarships to 52 students
in 13 faculties of Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU), Ife, Osun State.
The scholarship valued at N10.4 million was
awarded during its maiden Dallas Scholars Initiative.
The event which
took place at the Oduduwa Hall of the University had in attendance some top
members of the university management led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Simeon
Bamire. The mood was one of excitement and overwhelming elation for the donors,
the beneficiaries as well as the University officials.
Speaking on the
objective of the initiative, the President of the US Chapter of the Alumni
Association, Adeolu Esho said the Dallas project is a give-back and support for
their beloved alma mater targeted and was designed to aid indigent students.
Esho said he was
co-opted by Dallas Branch President to serve on the Scholarship Award
Committee.
Providing
insights on the criteria for the selection process, he said: “We commenced the
process in August 2023 and the beneficiaries were selected based on set
criteria ranging from their outstanding academic performance, fascinating
application and strict adherence to the laid down instructions, justification
of financial needs, personal branding ability and the quality of their written
essay.”
Also speaking on
the occasion, President of the Awarding Branch, Great Ife Alumni Association,
Dallas, Dr. Tunde Adeyemo, said: "Many of our members in the Dallas Branch
identify with the struggles of the younger students who are pursuing their
education at OAU at a critical time like this. We understand that there are
many students who, though exceptionally brilliant, may need some help
financially to make it through their degrees programmes. We were here and still
understand the peculiar challenges."
Dr. Adeyemo said
the beneficiaries of the scholarship award are to be tagged "Dallas
Scholars" and are expected to be good ambassadors of the Dallas OAU Alumni
branch. "We will give out scholarships every academic session to indigent
students who are diligent and who excel academically" he pledged.
Dr. Adeyemo
commended the 52 scholarship awardees, urging them to consider themselves lucky
among the over 35,000 students populace of the university. He cited various
projects the Association has executed to support OAU in the past.
“Our commitment
to our alma mater and different interventions is to ease the burden of both
infrastructural provisions and human capital needs of our beloved university.
For example our Dallas Branch championed the perimeter fencing of Angola Hall
of Residence and the donation of equipment for speedy processing transcripts,
among other projects,” he said.
It would be
recalled that in 2022, the Dallas Branch donated $10,000,000
to the Maternal
and Reproductive Health Research Collective of the University of Lagos Teaching
Hospital, (LUTH) Idi Araba, as part of measures aimed at providing humanitarian
service and medical support for the Save Our Red Cells otherwise referred to as
Sickle-Cell Warriors.
A Lagos based
member of the Dallas Alumni Branch, Evangelist Adekunbi Akin-Taylor, expressed
satisfaction at the presentation of the scholarship certificates to the
beneficiaries after a very thorough process.
She commended the
visionary leadership of Dr Adeyemo and Esho.
In his address on
the occasion, Prof. Bamire expressed appreciation to the Dallas Chapter for the
scholarship support and the overall contribution of the alumni towards the
growth, development, sustainability and maintenance of the values and standards
for which the institution is revered among the committee of foremost
universities in Africa while urging the beneficiaries to emulate the donors in
future.
He said: “We are
most grateful for the good work and efforts of different alumni branches across
the world especially like Dallas Branch, it is unimaginable the effect on any
student dropping out of the University due to the challenges of funding that is
the more reason why interventions such as Dallas Scholars initiative is
unquantifiable and the University remains most grateful for their goodwill.”
Speaking with the
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation, and Development at OAU, Prof.
Akanni Akinyemi expressed the gratitude of the university to the Dallas Branch
of the OAU Alumni body while admonishing the non-beneficiaries to further seek
scholarship opportunities without getting discouraged as there are numerous.
He said: "Supporting
human capital development is the best investment anybody can give to the world
as the value remains unquantifiable.
“Poorly trained young people will turn out to
be a disservice to humanity and the society in general, hence efforts such as
that of Dallas Branch are special and commendable."
One of the
beneficiaries, Tadese Ayodele Stephen, a 500 Level Dentistry student who
initially doubted the process since the application began in 2023, expressed
his delight and the timely intervention at such a very challenging economic
situation. “I came across the scholarship offer online as the registration
process wasn't tedious, I had my reservations but when I got the message that I
am one of the recipients of the scholarship award, I was surprised because the
application was almost six month long," he said. Tadese thanked the branch
for the initiative while stating that the gesture will further serve as a
morale booster for him in his academic quest.
Sobanke
Oluwadoyinsola, a 300 level student of Medicine and Surgery, expressed profound
appreciation to the Dallas alumni body.
"To be very
honest, when I saw the requirements, I was a bit discouraged because I wasn't
really sure if I could write a very persuasive personal statement of
justification. I just decided to give it a try and fortunately it turned out
positively," she said, adding that she would do everything right to be a
good ambassador of the Dallas Scholars.
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