The 2019 graduating students of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Ogun State have been admonished to uphold the spirit of excellence in all they do, as they advance in their academic pursuit across the world.
Peter Bankole, guest speaker and chairman, Board of Trustees, Supreme Education Foundation stated that excellence is not something that happens, rather it is something you plan for, and you do in a very meticulous way, adding that when you do it consistently, it then becomes a culture.
Speaking at the 2019 graduation and valedictory service of the school with the theme titled, “Excelencia Como Cultura (Excellence As A Culture), Bankole advised the students to remain focused stressing that once excellence becomes a culture for them, it is very difficult for them to see mediocre and associate with it.
According to him, “To achieve culture of excellence is a commitment much more than something else. And I can only admonish you to keep the excellent flag flying as you depart from here today into the rest of your bright futures”.
Chinedum Oluwadamilola, Principal of the School in her welcome address at the event said the 2019 graduating Class have demonstrated a propensity to succeed on the biggest of stages. Be it in the classroom, on the competition surface or in the community, they have displayed their talents, passions, skills, accomplishments and achievements.
According to her, “They produced outstanding results in the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), with two of them; Anna Adobamen and Shalom Emeka, obtaining A-Stars in all the subjects they had registered for. Also worth savouring is their imposing Standardised Aptitude Test (SAT) results. Worthy of note over again is the fact that two of the students in The Class of 2019 got 2nd best SAT result in the world and best in the country, scoring 1550 out of 1600”.
Oluwadamilola observes that the Class of 2019 are indeed trail blazers, adding that they have exhibited a commitment to the values and culture upon which everything in Corona school is predicated.
“They have led by example and worked incredibly hard to foster, nurture, support, display, and instill the tenets of a positive, safe, and proud school culture and climate. We will be forever grateful for the indelible mark you have left on our learning community, on our hearts, and on me, personally”, she said.
Speaking on the theme of the day, the principal opines that culture of excellence lies at the very heart of Corona Secondary School essence. In her words, “Excellence is an indispensable one of a number of core values that provide strong anchorage to the school’s avowed mission and vision. For us, excellence is a culture, our way of life in CSS. We all lead this very life happily, cashing into emergent trends”.
“The understanding that excellence is transient harps for us, we therefore, consistently make an onward thrust to the better than the now’s best. We believe that best is improvable. It is this attitude that keeps Corona Secondary School on the top ladder in the educational world,” she said.
On her part, Shalom Emeka, Valedictorian of the set who plans to study Product Design Engineering in United Kingdom said during her six years journey through the school, she confronted several challenges, but with the help from the school structure, she triumphed at the end of the day.
“In a lot of ways, CSS has impacted my life; the school has been such a lovely community with a very supportive non-teaching staffs and teaching staffs all to ensure our success. For me, it is the best school in Africa if not the world,” she said.
The high point of the occasion was the presentation of various categories of awards and endowments to some outstanding students of the 2019 graduands by the school and other professional bodies. Special Awards and Endowments in various subjects were presented to Shalom Emeka; Chizoma Duru; Memunat Abiru and Anna Adobamen with Chizoma Duru bagging most of the special awards categories, winning four out of possible eight.
KELECHI EWUZIE
