This article is from page 14 of the 2006-12-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE ENNIS student who joined an elite team to represent Ireland at a science competition in Brazil has returned home covered in glory.
Victor Akujobi, a student of Ennis Community College, has brought home the country’s first silver medal from the Junior Science Olympiad.
Victor was picked on the strength of his Junior Certificate grades in Science and Maths to take part in the DCU/Damova Irish Junior Science Olympiad in DCU in November this year. He won a gold medal in this event entitling him to represent Ireland.
“It was a really exciting journey”, said Victor who added that he was “delighted and so are my family and people at school”.
Victor was on a team of six that travelled to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the competition. Fifty-three countries competed at the Olympiad, which ran from December 3 to 12.
The competition consisted of three three-hour exams spanning both the theoretical and experimental aspects of the four science disciplines, biology, chemistry, physics and maths.
On December 12, Victor was announced as one of the silver medalists, the first silver medal that Ireland has won at this event.
The win is a dream come true for the 15-year-old Nigerian, who came to Ireland in January this year to join his parents. “The buzz of pride and excitement in the school is a clear reflection of the immense magnitude of his achievement” one of Victor’s teachers told The Clare People .
After an appeal from a friend of the family through The Clare People , generous sponsors came on board to provide spending money for Victor’s trip.
Victor said that one of the best things about the Olympiad was “making so many new friends from so many different countries and cultures. My email in box is full”.
The Ennis student is hoping for a career that will “include something to do with maths, physics and computers. Those are my three main interests”.
Ennis Community College is no stranger to this type of international glory.
In 2001, one of their students Iris Choi won gold in the IBM/DCU Irish Physics Olympiad. She went on to represent Ireland in Antalya, Turkey in the International Physics Olympiad in June of that year.
Also on the International Wall of Fame for Ennis Community College is James Martin, who won the IBM/DCU Irish Schools Programming 1998 and went on to represent Ireland in Setubal, Portugal in September of that year at the International Olympiad in Informatics.