Emmanuel Nworie, First-Class Mathematics Graduate Who Went Viral After Sharing Photos Of Himself Farming, Bags PhD Scholarship In US
Emmanuel Nworie, a first-class mathematics graduate of University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu state, has bagged a fully-funded scholarship at a university in the United States.
He bagged the scholarship after a photo of him tilling the soil and turning cassava flakes (garri) in Ebonyi state owing to poverty went viral on social media.
In an interview with TheCable, the 27-year-old who graduated with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.92/5.00, recounted the challenges he faced that made him turn to farming and not further his education as he desired.
Nworie said;
I started having challenges in 2005 when we struggled with the health of my dad. I have long wanted to be a mathematician. But after my dad passed away, I was deterred because at some point when I was trying to save for undergraduate studies and after two years I couldn’t save enough, so I was frustrated.
The UNN graduate applied for Michael Taiwo (MT) Scholarship and emerged as one of the 23 candidates selected from a pool of 1,509 applicants for the scholarship, which covers costs for application fees and Graduate Record Exam (GRE) — a requirement for the graduate application for some courses in the US.
Michael Taiwo, a US-based Nigerian and sponsor of MT Scholarships, alongside Suraj Oyewale, founder of JarusHub, a career and education platform, identified Nworie during the selection of candidates for the scholarship.
Following his selection as a scholarship awardee, Nworie bagged three offers from universities in the southern part of the US, according to Taiwo who made the announcement in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Taiwo said;
Today, I am pleased to announce that Emmanuel Chinweuba Nworie has accepted a fully-funded offer to study for his PhD in Mathematics at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. SMU is a prestigious private research university. Emmanuel prefers locations with warm weather. He received three great offers, all from schools in the southern part of the US.
He stressed;
Mentors are our secret sauce. It is hard to exaggerate the role Dr. Busayo Aworunse, Emmanuel’s assigned mentor, played in delivering the outcome we celebrate today. Busayo, thank you. Help me congratulate Emmanuel. I cannot wait to see what he does with a Math PhD from SMU!
Speaking with the publication, Taiwo described Nworie’s achievement as remarkable, stressing;
He still feels the rage and sadness I spoke about a couple of months ago, but I feel happy for him in particular and hope in general that we can make a difference.
He is going to one of the best universities in the world. SMU is a costly school, more expensive than Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale. He will be schooling with people from the richest families in the world. This is the kind of exposure we (the MT Scholarship team) and he felt like he needed so that he can think big with his God-endowed brain.
He stressed;
It costs over $75,000 per year to attend SMU. Emmanuel won’t pay a single dollar out of this. In addition to this, he will be given a very generous stipend to cater for his living expenses. The interesting thing is that he got three of this type of offers from Southern Methodist University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and the University of Texas at Dallas.
When asked about his advice for other graduates who share similar stories like Nworie, Taiwo said such people should endeavour to utilise the internet to access available opportunities.
He stated;
I would say they should keep up hope and try to move to a city where they can have access to the internet. As you can remember from Emmanuel’s story, his breakthrough came because he was in Enugu when the application window for the annual Michael Taiwo Graduate School Application scholarship was open.
If he had been at his farm in Ebonyi, he would have missed this generation-changing opportunity. So my advice is that they should relocate to where they can get access to information, i.e. the internet.
Congratulations Emmanuel Nworie!
