As expected, Rosemary Ajiboye, Nigeria’s first female winner of International Physics Olympiad and outgoing student of Sacred Heart College, Akinyemi Way, Ibadan, Oyo State swept almost all the prizes available in her school’s valedictory event over the weekend.
Rosemary’s feat of winning at the Olympiad for Physics early last year had also turned out to be a record for Oyo State.
The 15-year-old Ajiboye (then) emerged the winner after a competition that involved secondary schools that qualified for second round of the examinations from 11 states of the federation.
This earned her a place in the International Physics Olympiad in Switzerland but due to challenges with logistics, she could not attend.
However, at the virtual competition of 2022, she represented Nigeria along with two others and she came out with the best individual performance among the members of the Nigerian delegation. Her feat has earned her an automatic place in the 2023 edition of the competition slated for Tokyo, Japan but that one also was missed by her.
During the valedictory held ceremony held in honour of Rosemary and her 2022/23 set held on Sunday, the principal of her school, Reverend Father (Dr) Michael Domingo was over-joyed and showered her and a few others with gifts and words of encouragement cum admonition.
The high point of the programme held inside the main hall of Sacred Heart College, Ring Road was when Ajiboye was asked by Dr Domingo to ‘please stay back in the school as part-time teacher to inspire and teach’ her juniors until she is ready to resume higher school.
In Dr Domingo’s words to her, “Rosemary, we are proud of you. And we believe you can inspire your juniors. We will like you to stay back. We will engage you as a temporary teacher until when you are ready to pursue your Engineering degree later.”
The well-loved principal of the school also disclosed that both Shell Petroleum Exploration Company and another institution have signified interest in engaging her.
During the valedictory event, old students of Sacred Heart College also sent in a representative in Reverend Father Calistus who brought both cash and materials for the elated students.
Graduating students and others who excelled in different subjects were all given plaques and cash ranging between N10,000 and N50,000.
An old boy, whose name was not disclosed offered to pay part of Rosemary Ajiboye’s registration fees when she resumes as an undergraduate.
While speaking with the graduating students earlier, Dr Domingo highlighted why they should specially pray for wisdom.
His words “You should all specifically pray for wisdom like King Solomon in the Holy Bible. No one can get to the throne without being full of wisdom. You need wisdom to be able to quickly identify gold when you see it.
“Nobody can get to discover gold without first getting in contact with sand/dust. In addition, if you do not deploy wisdom as you carry out your daily activities, you will run into unnecessary problems and also make avoidable mistakes.
“When you go into the world as you are going now, you will meet all sorts of people. And there is no complete achievement in life. Challenges will forever be there for you to overcome. This is why you need to be full of wisdom. You must learn to live, work, talk as somebody that is full of wisdom.”
The valedictory ceremony was attended by parents of the graduating students as well as other friends of the school.
Packaged by Olayinka Agboola
