An orphan, Precious Emmanuel, who was sponsored for university education by Greensprings’ International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma students has graduated with a first class in Economics from Anambra State University.
Emmanuel who is among the 2021 graduating set of the university, expressed his appreciations via a video to the students, thanking them for supporting him financially throughout his stay at the university.
“I want to use this opportunity to appreciate Greensprings School, especially the IB Diploma students of the school for supporting me through school. It was a time of hopelessness for me, but they showed up. I appreciate what they did for me because God moved through them. And for making me happy and giving me hope about the future, I pray that God will continue to bless them,” he said.
Celebrating Emmanuel’s brilliant academic performance, the Wider Curriculum Principal of the school, Mrs Jennifer Sunkanmi-Qaazzeem, said the school’s community is delighted to hear about his achievement, adding that Emmanuel is one among several undergraduates that the IB diploma students are supporting financially through school.
“It gives us great joy to hear that Precious Emmanuel graduated with a first class. For our IB diploma students, it feels like a pleasant reward for their Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) project, under which the sponsorship was made. The decision by the IB students to provide financial support for undergraduate students started over a decade ago, and since then, they have successfully sponsored a good number of students in private and public universities,” she said.
Sunkanmi-Qaazzeem added: “these undergraduates are usually students in dire need of financial support to get an education, and in the case of Emmanuel, he is an orphan who didn’t have anyone to financially support him to pursue his dream of studying Economics. Hence, our IB diploma students took over his sponsorship as part of their community service programme.”
Asked how the IB Diploma students got the fund used for the sponsorship, Sunkanmi-Qaazzeem said they worked for the money and saved it to an account set up by the school.
“The fund used for the sponsorship is not from the pocket money of the students. They have been trained in entrepreneurship and fundraising, so they worked to generate the fund and seek out donors within the school’s community. Some of the things they do to get money include making and selling snacks and gift packs, organising movie nights, and getting involved in jumbo sales. They also earn income by providing car wash services, and during school events, they seek donations towards their community service projects, and all income realised from donations and creative crafts of the students are put into a bank account set up for students’ charity projects.”
She noted that he IB diploma charity project is continuous and a requirement for every student that passes through the programme, as it teaches them about humanity and helps them to be better prepared for university life.
