Nigerian student emerges overall best at Howard University, USA

… secures residency at Havard University

A Nigerian student, Miss Boubini Miyensinte Jones-Wonni, has emerged as the best graduating student from the Howard University Medical Class of 2022.

Jones-Wonni was the youngest in the class and had put up a superlative record-breaking performance at the age of 22 as the valedictorian of the prestigious institution.

The Network has it on good authority that the indigene of Arogbo Ijaw in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State is among the two members of the class accorded the privilege of admission to the prestigious Harvard University Medical school for residency (post-graduate) training in Internal Medicine.

A look at the history of her education shows a unique brand of focused and unrelenting Academic star whose scholarly efforts are marked by excellence in the real superlative definition of success. At every turn in her Academic life, she made it a policy to be at the top of her class. Academic excellence, character, focus have defined her. From the primary schools in Nigeria to the prestigious universities of the US, Jones-Wonni has emerged the best in all the classes and the institutions she attended.

As her mother, Mrs Wonni, a senior judicial officer told the Network, Jones Wonni’s sustenance of excellence in academic is not just a product of her academic capacity but a unique quality and discipline to focus on set objectives.

Interestingly, when the young lady’s gaze is focused on something, the number one position is always the target. Like a successful sports personality, she combined an interplay of character with academic competence. This, according to her mother, will make her stay away from the distraction of the telephones for days while studying for tough examinations. No academic challenge is insurmountable before her studious presence.

Born in Ido-ani, Ondo State, on the 23rd of October 1999 to the family of Dr and Mrs Jones-Wonni, she started her primary education in Banky’s Private school Apo Abuja. Due to a sterling performance in primary school, she was encouraged to sit for the common entrance examinations from Primary three which she passed in flying colours and proceeded to Word of Faith Group of Schools in Area 1 Abuja. While in High school, she continued on the path of hard-work and diligence.

As such, she was made the library Prefect, was awarded a full tuition fee waiver in her final year by the management of the school and subsequently graduated as best graduating student and valedictorian for the graduating class of 2014 at the age of Fourteen (14) in the year 2014.

Upon performing excellently in a test conducted, she became a beneficiary of the Special Education Scholarship programme for Niger Delta Students, an initiative of the Presidential Amnesty Programme under the leadership of Hon Kingsley K. Kuku and was sent to the USA to study Medicine and Surgery.

This required her to first complete a first degree in a relevant discipline prior to medical school. Thus, she was admitted in Miles College Alabama, U.S.A to obtain a degree in biological sciences. She was able to achieve this in a record three years as opposed to the conventional four years of study.

The Network gathered that during her days in Miles, she was the Secretary of Finance of the Student Government Association, an equivalent of the Student Union Government in tertiary institutions here in Nigeria. She was also a member of Honors groups for distinction students, such as the Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Honors Society.

At the completion of her studies in 2018, she was adjudged the best graduating student in the Department of Natural Science and Mathematics with a grade point average of 4.0/4.0 and a Co- Valedictorian of the graduating students at the age of Eighteen (18).

Boubini wrote the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), a pre-requisite test for admission into medical school and scored in the 91st percent, which means that her score was in the top 9% of all the students who took the examination in the United States of America at the time, and consequently received an invitation to the Howard University Medical School, in Washington DC to study Medicine in 2018.

Notable Alumni from this prestigious University include the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris and the late actor Chadwick Boseman. With this, she became the first Miles’ student beneficiary of a partnership agreement between Miles College and Howard Medical School which provides the opportunity for top STEM scholars from Miles College to apply to Howard Medical School.

She continued in her winning ways upon commencing medical school and was honored to have been awarded numerous scholarships through the school for financial need and academic achievement, namely the Rana Family scholarship, the E. & M. Prioleau Endowed scholarship. She also received the Student of the Year award for her work with the Anesthesia and Critical Care Interest Group. She was placed in the top 10% of her class at the end of the first year.

These accolades further spurred her in the second year of medical school during which she received the Dr. Josephus C. and Nellie C. Carr Foundation award for academic achievement. By the end of the 2nd year, she was named the second in her class.

By year 3, she was inducted into the Gamma chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor medical society, an honor that was provided to only three (3) other students at the time. She also received the Auxiliary to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia Scholarship to worthy medical students and the Dr. Louise Maxienne Dargans Fleming Award to a student with academic promise.

In her year 4, the genius in her had taken the number one position in the class, was nominated by her classmates as a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society as someone who serves as an exemplar in compassionate patient care.

Belongs is a summary of her awards/ honors

The Sterling Lloyd Prize in Clinical Medicine -Awarded to the graduating student who has the highest-grade average in required junior and senior clinical clerkship courses of the medical curriculum

Howard University Medical Alumni Association Alumni Award – awarded to the student who has attained the highest scholastic average in his/her class

Michael Oliver Dumas Prize- Awarded to the student with highest cumulative academic average in his/her class

The O. Anthony Ogundipe, M.D. Endowed Academic Achievement Award – Awarded to the senior student with the highest scholastic achievement in the graduating class

Dr. M. Wharton Young Prize – Awarded to the senior medical student who has achieved the highest average of scholastic distinction

Merck Manual Awards- Awarded to the students who have achieved the highest scholastic recorded during their years of medical study

Department of Medicine

(I) Dr. W. Lester Henry, Jr. Award – Awarded to the most outstanding performance in Medicine

(ii) Dr. John L. Townsend Award – Awarded for the highest score on the National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Medicine

Second Highest Clerkship Grade in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Award for the Highest Score on the National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The above was given on the graduation day. Others include;

Member,Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society |Gamma Chapter, Howard University College of Medicine May 2021 ¨

Recipient of the Auxiliary to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia Scholarship |Howard University College of Medicine |November 2020 ¨

Recipient of Academic Achievement Award for ranking 2nd in the class |Howard University College of Medicine | November 2020 ¨

Recipient of Dr. Josephus C. and Nellie C. Carr Merit Achievement Scholarship |Howard University College of Medicine | March 2020 ¨

Recipient of Rana Family Scholarship |Howard University College of Medicine | November 2019 ¨

Anesthesiology and Critical Care Interest Society Student of the Year Award |Howard University College of Medicine | April 2019 ¨

Co-Valedictorian |Miles College | May 2018 ¨

Best Graduating Student in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics |Miles College | May 2018 ¨

National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAHP) Conference Debate Team |1st and 2nd place | Oct 2016; Oct. 2015 ¨

Member of Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Honors Society | April 2017 ¨

Recipient of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Birmingham Alumnae Chapter scholarship | May 2017 ¨

Recipient of Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta special scholarship | Jan 2015 – present

Best Graduating Student and class Valedictorian, Word of Faith Group of schools, Abuja 2014.

Without doubt, Jones-Wonni is cut out for the High places of excellence. The award at Howard and the admission into Harvard is yet another stepping stones in this beautiful unfolding story of greatness.