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Kelechi Nwankwo's quests on the path of academic excellence cause for joy

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

Increasingly, it would seem reasonably that the younger generation of Africans born here in the U.S. will move their level of academic outcomes to a higher level than their parents. It is with joy, therefore, that I share the story and views of another young member of the African community who is excelling among her peers in academics. She is the pretty and brilliant Miss Kelechi Ugoh Nwankwo. She is among those chosen for the summer of 2002 to attend one North Carolina's schools for gifted youth/children.
She will she will study English, Philosophy, Self and Society. She was born November 21, 1984, as the second daughter of Dr. Herbert Emenike Nwankwo, and Cordelia Onyeberechiya Nwankwo.

Her father informed USAfricaonline.com that during the 2001 summer, she was among students selected from around the country that participated in the NASA SHARP Plus program in Science and Engineering at the California State University, Los Angeles, and has remained "No. 1 in her rising senior class at the Science and Mathematics Academy."

She will be featured in the Teens page A14 of the April 23, 2002 print edition USAfrica The Newspaper. Here are excerpts from the interview I had with her for USAfricaonline.com:

USAfricaonline.com: Congratulations on your emerging academic excellence; and we're proud of you. What do you aspire to do?

Kelechi: I want to become a computer engineer

What are the major sources of your drive for academic excellence?
I really don't think I have a main drive, I just try to do everything that I do at my full potential so that I won't regret not trying my hardest.

Take a look at your Igbo and African heritage and compare those with the reality of where you're born, I believe, here in the U.S.
I think that being an American citizen and growing up in a culture semi-different from that of my surroundings has helped me to become a more rounded individual and more worldly b/c I understand that there is a world outside of America with different people, languages, cultures, and political societies.

What are your interests/hobbies?
I try to do a little bit of everything, I don't have a main interest or hobby

Any fav' artiste/songs/hero/heroines?
My favorite artistes are Michael Jackson and Bob Marley; favorite song is "If Only You Knew" by Patti LaBelle.

What is your guiding philosophy?
Right now it changes often; it would have to be to just live life and let things fall into place the way God intended for them to be.

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