Emmanuel Ohuabun made Nigeria proud in 2012 when he became the first black man to make a GPA of 3.98 on a 4 point scale, breaking history at the John Hopkins University.
Emmanuel graduated from Neuroscience with the highest honor. With an academic result so excellent, Emmanuel received another scholarship for Yale University in the United States with admission to study Medicine.
Johns Hopkins University was then acclaimed worldwide as a leading university in the field of medicine. It pioneered the concept of modern research in the United States and has ranked among the world’s top such universities throughout its history. The National Science Foundation has ranked the university #1 among U.S. academic institutions in total science, medical and engineering research and development and as at 2011, about 37 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the University. Emmanuel made history by not only graduating top of his class at Johns Hopkins University; he became the first black man to do so in the university’s history!
Emmanuel who is a native of Arochukwu, Abia State was born in Lagos, Nigeria but moved to the United States with his parents at the age of thirteen. There he became the victim of racial discrimination but that did not deter his determination to succeed.
During graduation at DeBakey High School, he was given an Award for the Most Outstanding Senior Young Man. He subsequently won a full scholarship awarded to him by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study at any university of his choice in the United States of which he choose Neuroscience program at Johns Hopkins University.
Emmanuel’s story shows what is possible with continued discipline and resilience and it seems the story has spurred many Nigerians in the Diaspora to aim for the best wherever they find themselves.