Class Stars

Shamaila Abedin is a First Class Degree BSc Economics graduate from the University of York, United Kingdom.

In the final year of her undergraduate degree, she received five first-class grades with two of her strongest modules being Microeconomics and Mathematical Economics. She has been awarded two merit-based scholarships from the university; Sharifah Sofia Albukhary Scholarship in 2017 and British Council GREAT Scholarship in 2021.

Alongside her education, she has worked in various part-time jobs in customer-service roles in companies such as Nike and Primark. She also worked as an Open Days Student Ambassador to help attract prospective students to the university.

In addition, she has taken up a voluntary role as a module representative for Mathematical Economics where she liaises with the lecturer and the Department of Economics to solve pressing issues students encountered and bettered the student experience.

Samuel Onyekachukwu Okerulu is a First Class Graduate of Accountancy from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.

Samuel is result oriented and believes in the power of a transformed mind through mentorship and reading for the good of humanity and sustainability of her core values.

He is member and ambassador to many notable organizations and foundations, both local and International such as Clarawitty foundation, Africa Resource Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (ARC_ESM). He is a Certified Human Resource Manager, Certified Medical Logiscian in Pandemic (MLP), Certified in Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM-Part one). He also holds a soft skill certificate from Jobberman amongst others.

Currently, he is a student member of Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) and in the process of bagging a micro masters in supply chain management from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

As an undergraduate, he supported many projects on volunteer basis including the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (Huwe project) of the Federal Ministry of Health, Global Fund project on malaria eradication in Katsina State of Nigeria through triangulation of poor quality data of malaria commodities. Samuel has seasonal working experience in both private and public sectors of the economy. He is currently a practicing accountant in one of the biggest corporations in Awka, BigBen Fashion and Design Limited.

Samuel as an undergraduate had in his name numerous meritorious awards, nominations, appointments and recognitions. He also held numerous leadership positions during his National Youth Corp Service (NYSC) while discharging his official duties with all diligence and due care.

Samuel holds honesty, character, integrity and professionalism. His areas of interest include: Corporate financial reporting and analysis, Human Resource Management, capacity building, Supply chain management, Auditing and investigation, corporate social responsibility, internal controls and leadership.

Samuel's hobbies are meeting people, traveling, inspiring people and acting.

Samuel is a man of faith that believes so much in the irrefutable principles and doctrines of Jesus Christ. He is a preacher of the Gospel, a performer and a public speaker. He is the last child of a family of six children, whose parents are both retired civil servants.

Racheal is an industrious, flexible, dynamic and energetic young lady. She is a foodpreneur and an educationist who graduated from the prestigious Osun State University with a First Class Degree.

Racheal is passionate about teaching, leadership, business and marketing. Her teachings have motivated and encouraged a lot of people, especially females, to actualize their dreams.

She is the team Lead of T&K Foundation, a non-profit organization which seeks to cater for the less privilege and promote Girl Child rights and education.

Racheal is also passionate about the sustainable development goals and she has contributed immensely to goal 4, 5, 6 and 3 through her initiative. She is also a member of Young Africa Leader Initiative (YALI).

David Folorunsho is a First Class Graduate in Computer Engineering from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He graduated top of his class and served as an assistant in Christian Association of Nigeria secretariat, Sokoto state.

He currently work as a Systems Administrator at Wema Bank Plc. He has a very strong Information Technology background both theoretical and practical.

He has served as IT Support Service Engineer at Wema Bank with demonstrated knowledge of Server maintenance, Hardware repair and troubleshooting and apt usage of AD DS and Exchange roles and also a skilled Windows user.

He is currently fine tuning his dexterity of O365, Microsoft Azure and Windows Server.

David is very passionate about personal development and continuously strives to add value to himself to be better at every responsibility he is entrusted with.

Oiye George holds a First Class Degree of Law from the Riara University, Kenya and a Diploma in French from Alliance Francaise. Nairobi.

According to him, "I pride myself in being resilient and showing the world over time, that ‘No’ is not an answer for me. I attribute this to my beloved Mum and my late Dad. From an early age, it was showed to us that you can be anything you want to be. The fact that I was a last born too must have helped! I count myself fortunate to have a supportive wife, sisters, sister-in-law and father-in-law too. Without them I would not have been able to overcome tremendous challenges along the way. And with God’s faithfulness, I have been able to achieve a lot. Watch out for more!

Helena is a 23 year old First Class Graduate, hard-worker, passionate about travel, believer in Jesus Christ (who she knows helped her a lot when she was struggling with things at university), a wife and dog-mum.

She was someone who throughout her whole life was told she wasn’t good at school or academia, she was normally in the bottom sets at school and she didn’t get the A-levels she wanted, but she still got accepted into her first choice at the University of Chester in the UK.

In one of her first ever lectures, the teacher asked everyone “so who here wants to get a First Class Degree?”, she knew she did (who wouldn’t?) so she put her hand up straight away, to her surprise not many others did. The lecturer looked at her, smiled and said “Well that’s a great way to start isn’t it!”. She thinks the other students didn’t put their hand up because they didn’t want to seem ‘too keen’ or perhaps they didn’t actually believe they could so why wish for it? She thinks if people have that kind of perspective, they miss out on some great things because they didn’t believe in themselves in the first place. Sure she remembers thinking ‘it’s unlikely’, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying! 3 years later, she graduated from University of Chester with that First Class Degree, one of her happiest moments, but it wasn’t without hardship!

Killi graduated from University of Jos in 2017 as the Overall 2nd Best Graduating Student in the University (out of 3385 students), and also the Overall Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Law.

The CGPA - 4.71 (First Class Honours) under 5.00 grading system was recorded as the highest CGPA since establishment of the faculty 42 years ago (1977). At the convocation ceremony, Killi received five academic awards including the Overall Best Student in International Law.

Killi has received about 20 academic awards/recognitions within 5 years.

An economist cum work psychologist, Patrick E. Nwakogo is the Nigeria Country Director & CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, the largest training company in the world, with a clientele that includes over 400 of the Fortune 500 corporations in over 85 countries. 

Patrick initially trained as an economist with a masters degree from the University of Ibadan but later retrained as a work psychologist with another masters degree in Managerial Psychology from Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He is also an alumnus of Grenoble Ecole de Management (Grenoble Graduate School of Business), France where he received the Executive Diploma in Management Consulting. He also attended the Dale Carnegie Academy, New York, where he was certified as a Trainer and Coach.  

A management consultant, coach, trainer and speaker, Patrick works with organizations to create productive work cultures and helps their employees to take command of their work through training and other development initiatives.  

Having broken from a largely lacklustre childhood, Patrick has been on a mission to help people learn how to assemble the building blocks that success requires.

One of the most insightful lessons he says he has learned in life and business, is that “People usually require a support system to achieve sustainable success.” Exceed Culture is the platform he has created to help others in their quest for success in life, career and business. The overarching goal of Exceed Culture is to enable people live fuller, richer and meaningful lives through motivation, knowledge share, coaching and provision of life-changing resources.   

As a speaker, Patrick sees the “stage” as a platform to share what he knows has worked both for him and others.  The “stage” for him has included conferences, seminars and workshops in Europe, USA and Africa.

An economist cum work psychologist, Patrick E. Nwakogo is the Nigeria Country Director & CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, the largest training company in the world, with a clientele that includes over 400 of the Fortune 500 corporations in over 85 countries.

Patrick initially trained as an economist with a masters degree from the University of Ibadan but later retrained as a work psychologist with another masters degree in Managerial Psychology from Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He is also an alumnus of Grenoble Ecole de Management (Grenoble Graduate School of Business), France where he received the Executive Diploma in Management Consulting. He also attended the Dale Carnegie Academy, New York, where he was certified as a Trainer and Coach.

A management consultant, coach, trainer and speaker, Patrick works with organizations to create productive work cultures and helps their employees to take command of their work through training and other development initiatives.

Having broken from a largely lacklustre childhood, Patrick has been on a mission to help people learn how to assemble the building blocks that success requires.

One of the most insightful lessons he says he has learned in life and business, is that “People usually require a support system to achieve sustainable success.” Exceed Culture is the platform he has created to help others in their quest for success in life, career and business. The overarching goal of Exceed Culture is to enable people live fuller, richer and meaningful lives through motivation, knowledge share, coaching and provision of life-changing resources.  

As a speaker, Patrick sees the “stage” as a platform to share what he knows has worked both for him and others.  The “stage” for him has included conferences, seminars and workshops in Europe, USA and Africa.

A graduate of B.Eng Petroleum and Gas Engineering (First Class Honours) currently in transition into the Sustainable Energy space. Her interests lies at the intersection of energy, environmental sustainability and low carbon future. She is curious about energy governance and policy, decarbonisation pathways, access to affordable, efficient and clean energy up to the last-mile consumer and structuring financing for cost-competitive energy solutions.

She is a Girl in STEM activist who’s passionate about encouraging, inspiring and coaching young girls to pursue and develop interest in STEM careers. Her advocacy on #GiveGirlsRoleModels, a movement aimed at normalizing female role models in STEM, earned her the first ever Girl-in-STEM leadership award in recognition for her outstanding work in STEM advocacy by SPE Nigeria, Women Development Program (WDP). More than anything, I am driven by an insatiable desire to encourage and inspire young girls and women to break through the ceiling of possibility and make a positive and lasting impact in the world of STEM, STEAM & STREAM.

She devotes much of her time volunteering for Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and apply myself productively as an active member of Student Energy (SE), Energy Institute (EI), Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and the prestigious Global Thinkers Forum (GTF).