By Damilare Adeleye
Oreoluwa Soyobi, the best graduating female student at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos State, has advised current and aspiring tertiary institution students to always spend their time to study and avoid unhealthy competition in their academics.
The graduate of Food Technology, who clinched an impressive 3.80 Cumulative Grade Point Average on the scale of 4.0, gave the charge in an exclusive session with our correspondent.
Sharing how perseverance, determination, and a relentless pursuit of excellence paved the way for her profound academic feat, Oreoluwa stated that she faced several challenges including balancing her academics with personal cake making business while in school.
Speaking on her educational journey from secondary school to the higher institution, the young scholar noted; “It was a transformative journey, I have always been a goal getter academically because I really hate failure so I am always going extra mile to study right form secondary school and it became part of me till higher institution. I was able to do this through consistent practice and with the help of my Mum, my proprietor and proprietress, teachers in secondary school and also my lecturers at higher institution.”
Recounting her days in secondary school, Oreoluwa said, “I remembered my days in secondary school as always being at the forefront of my class academic activities and I was given the role of the head girl. My class mates and teachers made it very interesting but what I didn’t get to learn properly was networking. ”
She added, “I never aspired to study Food Technology. Growing up as kid, I was always aspiring to become a medical Doctor. Regardless, I fell in love with the one I was given as I grew deeper in the course.”
Speaking on how she was able to emerge as the best graduating female student, Oreoluwa remarked, “I was able to achieve such profound academic feat because I always aim excellence and the only way I could achieve that was to study really hard.”
On some of the challenges she encountered during her academic pursuit, the Food Technology graduate averred; “During my academic studies, one of the major challenges I faced was building my confidence. I often felt that others were more capable than me at my early stage in school which made it hard to speak up in group discussions or form connections with classmates. Others were balancing academics and my business, waking up for lectures early, I assimilate slowly so I spend so much time studying to understand which was really painful. Even, I own a cake brand, and I couldn’t balance it for long in school so I had to put it on hold in my final year.”
Meanwhile, when asked if there was any monetary rewards from either the school management or Lagos State government the Oreoluwa said; “At the point of announcement, I was only given certificates that stated my win and where to get my reward.”
She, however, urged students to often “spend time studying and also avoid unhealthy competition.”
