News
Nigerian-American teenager, Ashley Adirika wins $4m scholarship to study at Harvard University
By Francesca Hangeior
A 17-year-old Nigerian-American girl, Ashley Adirika has won a $4 million scholarship to study at the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
Adirika’s outstanding academic performances earned her the privilege to apply to the Ivy League universities in the US.
Graduated from the Miami Beach Senior High School, Florida, US, Ashley Adirika has always dreamt of going to study at an Ivy League University
When she opened her computer to check all her applications on Ivy Day, she was amazed to find out that all the Ivy League universities accepted and offered a scholarship, according to Scholarship Region news.
The schools included Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, Penn University, Princeton University, and Yale University.
Revealing her wild excitement, Adirika also said she received acceptance letters from Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, and Emory University.
“I just decided to shoot my shot at all of them and see if it would land. And I had no idea I would get accepted into all of them. On Ivy Day, I remember crying a lot and just being extremely surprised,” Ashely told CNN.
According to reports, the likelihood of being admitted to one of the elite universities ranges between three and eight percent.
Since 2018, the US most exclusive schools have accepted less than 12% of their applicants. In 2022, Yale took 4.5%, Columbia welcomed 3.7%, and Harvard greeted just 3.2% of its future pupils, the smallest number ever in the university’s history, according to CNN.
Along with her streak of stellar grades, Adirika is known as a force when it comes to speech and debate.
“But more than anything, it just gave me the platform to talk about things that I believed in and talk about things that were important to me. And so that is something that I am just forever indebted to Carol City for introducing me to that platform.”
Starting in middle school, her skills were exemplary of what the future held in store for her.
“Everybody knew Ashley because of how smart she was,” Carol City Middle School teacher Bess Rodriguez shared.
“She had test scores through the roof; she’s involved in all different activities. So I recruited her, and she had never debated before,” Rodriguez added.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
US President-elect, Donald Trump’s incoming administration plans to immediately order a series of deportation raids targeting illegal immigrants after his inauguration.
Chicago is expected to be the first major city targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as part of Operation Safeguard, the New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with planning the undertaking.
The massive deportation operation is expected to target criminals and gang members in the United States illegally and run for one week.
Trump has promised to conduct the largest deportation program in U.S. history.
Up to 200 ICE agents are being sent to Chicago to help kick off the operation on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The agency has already asked agents to volunteer for the post-inauguration raids.
“There’s gonna be a big raid across the country,” Tom Homan, who will be in charge of U.S. borders once Trump takes office, told Fox News in an interview.
Homan has previously said he will instruct ICE agents to carry out raids on illegal immigrants at their workplaces.
In addition to Chicago, the sweeping crackdown will also target other major U.S. cities with large immigrant populations.
Trump is set to take the oath of office on Monday, January 20, in an inauguration that will take place indoors.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
A faith-based civil society organization, CSO that monitors and reports on Hajj and Umrah activities, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, has commended the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, for selecting a different Saudi-based Hajj service provider for the 2025 Hajj season.
It said the decision would create healthy competition among service providers interested in efficiently, qualitatively, and satisfactorily serving Nigerian pilgrims.
The CSO, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Malam Ibrahim Muhammed, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and made available to our correspondent on Sunday in Abuja, said the quest for improved Hajj services has been a major challenge for Nigerian pilgrims owing to the repeated failure of providing satisfactory services.
”We applauded the decision to pick another service provider that will cater for the needs of pilgrims within the Masha’ir areas during the five days of Hajj,” he said
The national coordinator, who is currently in Saudi Arabia to monitor the pre-Hajj arrangements, said available information shows that the new company, Mashariq Al Dhahabia, is an experienced provider that has served top-rated Hajj countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia, and ranked among the top five Hajj service providers by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
“The company served 249 706 which is the largest number of Hajj pilgrims during the 2023 hajj. They were awarded as the Best Hajj Service Providers during the 2022 Hajj by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah,” he stated.
IHR said it further understood that NAHCON is planning to recruit another service provider to provide services for very important personalities, VIP pilgrims so as not to repeat the experience of previous years, which is also a desired step forward.
It, however, urged NAHCON to set a parameter of performance for the newly selected service providers to serve as a baseline for determining continuous patronage, advising that such criteria should be based on pilgrims’ satisfaction and adherence to contractual terms.
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