Stella Emelife Chinelo, a 2012/2013 First Class Graduate of Chemistry from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, has emerged as the best graduating student from a master’s degree from the University of Mysore, India, with a Final Grade Point (FGP) of 9.623%.
By this feat, the 29-year-old Anambra native who was raised in Sokoto has broken a 100-year-old academic record at the university.
Stella’s historic performance earned her 20 gold medals and five cash prize awards at the 99th convocation of the Indian university.
Stressing the importance of Stella’s performance, the management of the University of Mysore said, “This is perhaps the first time in recent years that a foreign student has bagged so many gold medals.”
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Back at her alma mater in Nigeria on Friday, an excited Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, vice chancellor of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, who was speaking at the combined 35th, 36th, and 37th convocation awards of degrees, diplomas, and certificates of UDUS, said academic excellence and standards remain the focus of the institution.
He expressed the belief that any of the current crop of students and graduands could replicate the young Chinelo’s sterling academic performance “by remembering that learning is a lifelong endeavor and its key ingredients are observation, thinking, consultation, and decision-making.”
“I want to say that I’m stunned, but everyone who grew up in Sokoto has heard of the Emelife excellency and of its torchbearer, Emelife Stella Chinelo, who has, since her primary school, remained top of her class. What we didn’t know, however, is that after receiving an Indian government scholarship to study in its country, she’d go on to top all of its citizens,” said Stella’s super-excited sister, Jennifer Emelife, on Facebook.
