Corona students achieve feat in global contest

The feat of the duo of Ikenna Uruakpa and Anna Adobamen of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Lagos, emerging the joint second-highest scorer of the 2018 Standardised Aptitude Test (SAT) worldwide has continued to draw commendations.

Also, stretching the school’s list of recent feats is another student, Ibukun Oduntan, who was also celebrated for being second highest in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). Uruakpa and Adobamen obtained top grades in all the subjects they registered for, which translated to scoring above 90 marks out of 100 in all the subjects.
Oduntan, on the other hand, reached an outstanding score of 344 out of 400 in the UTME examination, just 10 marks lesser than Benue-based Moses Ape, who scored overall point.

Expressing their joy, Uruakpa and Adobamen both encouraged other students to focus on hard work and commitment in trying to attain academic excellence.
Uruakpa said, “I want to thank my teachers, parents and peers. If it were by my efforts alone, I wouldn’t be here at all. I am so happy to be this celebrated. I would only advise other students to work hard and put in more efforts in whatsoever they find difficulty in doing, and with enough practice, they will definitely become perfect in it”.

Adobamen said that she believed her success would motivate other students towards similar feats. She said, “I feel really excited and happy about being one of the best in the world at this level. I owe all thanks to God almighty, the school in general, our ever-supportive teachers and my parents. I appreciate the fact that the school went extra miles to get external teachers to help us prepare for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) ; it was really awesome to learn from top professionals you can ever find in different academic fields of Nigeria.

“I believe with the milestone I achieved in my academic pursuit, other students could be encouraged by these by putting in more efforts to get the best results, even one better than mine”.Reacting to their victories, the principal, Mrs. Chinedum Oluwadamilola, said the school is committed to providing all-round education for its students, citing it as a factor for their academic achievements.

She said, “We say in Corona that there is a star in every child. Children have different abilities and attitudes, and we give them the opportunity to excel, nurture and discover those abilities.

“We are talking about performing arts, we are talking about visual arts, we are talking about dance drama, we are talking about sports, we are talking about academics, we are talking about community service and so on. There are many avenues and the students have the opportunities to thrive in different things and find what they are good at.”

The stars continue to shine with Corona secondary school as two of her students recently emerged among the top five in the Nigerian stock exchange essay competition.Speaking on the theme “Exploring creative excellence”, Managing Director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Mr. Adam Nuru, said, “Every time I come to this school, I feel butterflies in my tummy, and I still get them now several years after. I am not sure I am the right person to speak about excellence because having heard all the things said about the achievements of the school, I would say excellence only is born here. This is where you have it. And every year I come I see more and more progress being made, and I feel that I must pause to say a very big thank you to the council and faculty of the school, they have made parents of wards in this school a very proud one and full of respect, a big thank you to them.

“The theme of today’s speech bothers around excellence which is born here, and because it’s about the children, my focus is on them.  What is excellence? For me, it is really when you becoming good at something, and it could be anything. You are said to have excelled when you become best in what you do.

We all have our callings and peculiar areas of interest where we use our strength. So just tell yourself that ‘I want to be the best in what I do’.  You don’t achieve excellence by just being you; it’s by beating the person that is in you, and even doing better, and better, and better.  It’s about achieving a goal; it’s all about winning, and about taking part and commitment in becoming better at something.

Now how do you achieve excellence? First of all you have to be determined. You have to be determined to lead that great force to excel. You have to be committed to that course. And then you have to keep on practicing and practicing until you make it better and better.

“I will end my speech by reading a quote from an anonymous writer about excellence. He said, “Excellence is not a skill, it is by attitude”. It is the attitude that you put into what you do, that would determine if you will excel in it or not. Imbibe the right attitude.”