One of the two survivors of the 2005 Sosoliso plane crash, Kechi
Okwuchi, has proved her intelligence by graduating in First Class
division at the University of St Thomas, Houston, United States of
America. She cheated death by a hair’s breath in a fatal crash in
December 2005, where over 100 passengers lost their lives.Aside graduating with a First Class, she was also inducted as a member into six academic honour societies. She also won the Most Outstanding Student Award in Economics and gave the commencement address for the 2015 class.Okwuchi, who studied Economics (Major) and Marketing (Minor), said her decision to apply to the University of St. Thomas Student Commencement Speaker was impulsive.
“I realized the student speaker had to be someone, a student, and I realized that I have just as good of a chance as anyone else, so I thought, ‘You know, I’m just going to actually do this,’” she said. Okwuchi was among the over 1,000 graduates to celebrate the 65th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at NRG Arena, located at 1 NRG Park.One of her lecturers, Roger Morefield, Associate Professor of Economics, said he was honored to have Okwuchi as a student, and knew she would be a perfect representation of an ideal UST student.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..“Okwuchi is the kind of student every professor hopes to have in the class—her work ethic is magnificent,” Morefield said. “I think her speech is going to reach out to students in a way that’ll inspire them. She’s been through a lot, but her attitude is just so positive, and she’s an ideal student and a good representation of UST’s dedication to building leaders of faith and character.”She grew up in Aba, Abia State and attended Loyola Jesuit College—a respected boarding school and college preparatory in Abuja. Her plan was to attend the London School of Economics (LSE) until the unexpected happened.Okwuchi, who was 16 during the plane crash, and her friends were on their way home for the Christmas break when the unfortunate incident occurred, leaving her with severe burns all over her body.While recalling the tragedy, Okwuchi said all she remembered from that day were the screams of her friends and her praying, then the sound of crashing metal. She spent a year in South Africa receiving emergency medical treatment for burns on most of her body before she was brought to the Shriners Hospital in Galveston in 2007, where she finished her treatment.
She was in the middle of 12th grade when she came to America, and had plans of attending the London School of Economics.
“Coming to America was never in my plan,” Okwuchi said. “I had reasons to go to London. I have family there and the LSE is a prestigious school, but once I decided to stay in America and I felt like I was ready to go back to school, I applied to the University of Houston, UST and Rice University.”
As a Christian, Okwuchi chose UST because of its small size and environment—she said it reminded her of home.
“I looked at other schools, but there was something about UST that really made me feel comfortable,” Okwuchi said. “To be honest, it even looks a lot like my old school, and I’ve missed that.”
During her time at UST, Okwuchi was involved in Cameron School of Business events, the Celts Breakfast Club, the International Student Association, job fairs, attended seminars on and off campus, and has been a tutor of Writing and Economics since Spring 2014.
Okwuchi has options of continuing her education in a master’s programme or start working. No matter what, she believes that whatever happens will happen for the right reasons, and that no matter what, she will always make the most out of whatever situation she finds herself in.
“You’re still alive; you’re still here for a reason,” Okwuchi said. “There’s a certain fear in the unknown that we all face when we’re finished with school, but all those times we felt like it was the end, we made it through. There’s no reason why the next situation should break us. We’ve come this far, and we can definitely go further.”
To download click the picture to get nwanyi di ya bu eze by Expdona aka finish gravity
No comments:
Post a Comment