Okay, away from the APC and PDP politicals shenanigans, even if briefly, and let's celebrate Nigerians whose names in the global scheme of things are starting to emerge. A new crop of technocrats are coming up.

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Dehlia Umunna appointed Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law
March 31, 2015

Teaching & Learning


Dehlia Umunna


Dehlia Umunna has been appointed Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She has been a lecturer at HLS since 2007, and is Deputy Director and Clinical Instructor at HLS’s Criminal Justice Institute (CJI), in which she supervises third-year law students in their representation of adult and juvenile clients in criminal and juvenile proceedings and arguments before Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals court.

“Dehlia’s students revere her; her colleagues at HLS and nationally look to her as an exemplary advocate, teacher, and mentor,” said Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School. “From her unprecedented win record in criminal defense trials, her deft leadership of the Criminal Justice Institute day-to-day, and her superb coaching of student moot court teams, her published scholarship, to her numerous awards in recognition of her outstanding work as a criminal defense attorney, advisor, and teacher, Dehlia is simply extraordinary, an inspiration to her students and her clients in every way. It is a true privilege to be her colleague.”

Prior to coming to Harvard Law School, Umunna was a trial attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service and an adjunct professor of law and Practitioner in Residence at the Washington College of Law, American University. She currently serves as a faculty member for Gideon’s Promise, and is a frequent presenter at Public Defender trainings across the country. She was a board member of the District of Columbia Law Students in Court Clinic and was a guest lecturer for several years at the George Washington University Law School.

She is the author of the article “Rethinking the Neighborhood Watch: How Lessons from the Nigerian Village Can Creatively Empower the Community to Assist Poor, Single Mothers in America,” published in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.

“I am blessed and honored to join Harvard Law School’s remarkable faculty,” said Umunna. “I relish this extraordinary opportunity to continue work that I am truly passionate about, and I am grateful for the deep interest and commitment of the school to issues of criminal justice, mass incarceration, indigent defense and social justice.”

Umunna received her law degree from the George Washington University Law Center. She also holds a Masters in Public Administration (MC) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Communications from California State University, San Bernardino.

http://today.law.harvard.edu/dehlia-umunna-appointed-clinical-professor-law-harvard-law/

N.Y. teen accepted by all 8 Ivy League schools


By Heather Long @byHeatherLong


Harold Ekeh 3
Harold Ekeh is a senior at Elmont Memorial High School in Elemont, New York.


High school senior Harold Ekeh didn't just get into one Ivy League university. He was accepted into all eight.

Now comes the really hard part: Deciding where to go. He actually got into all 13 schools he applied to, including MIT and Johns Hopkins.

"I am leaning toward Yale," he told CNNMoney. "I competed at Yale for Model UN, and I like the passion people at Yale had."

Some of the Yale students he met became his friends and mentors, offering advice on the college application process. Now Ekeh is trying to do the same thing.

Ekeh, 17, founded a college mentoring program at his school, Elmont Memorial High School on Long Island in the New York city suburbs. His goal is to get more students into top universities.

Related: Harvard rejects about 95% of applicants

American dream: Ekeh was born in Nigeria and came to the United States when he was eight. He wrote his main college essay about the struggle to adjust, including being clueless in U.S. history classes at school. He said he would ask his parents repeatedly why they moved.

"We had a fairly comfortable life in Nigeria, but they told me we moved to America for the opportunities like the educational opportunities," he recalled.

The salutatorian is quick to credit his parents, school and community for his success.

"I am very humbled by this," Ekeh said. "It's not just for me, but for my school and community. We can accomplish great things here."

Related: 17-year old rejects Duke's rejection letter

A passion for science: He wants to major in neurobiology or chemistry in college and later become doctor and, ultimately, a neurosurgeon. He was named a 2015 Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist earlier this year for his research on how the acid DHA can slow Alzheimer's.

For Ekeh, the cause is personal. His grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was 11. One of his proudest moments was running home to tell his mother and aunts about the breakthroughs he was finding with DHA.

"When other kids would say, 'I want to be a superhero or police officer,' I would say, 'I want to know what is on the inside of us,'" he said.

Related: Stanford offers free tuition for families with less than $125,000

The key to success: Outside of the lab, Ekeh directs a youth choir at his church, plays the drums, is part of Key Club and Model UN and was elected to the Homecoming court. He speaks Igbo and Spanish and has a 100.5% GPA. He's proud of acing the AP History Exam despite his early struggles with the subject.

Elmont High School is 99% minority. Ekeh is the second student in recent years to win a prestigious Intel Science award.

Principal John Capozzi calls Ekeh "one of the most humble young men I've ever had the opportunity to meet." The lab where Ekeh did his award-winning research is modest and only staffed part-time by a passionate chemistry teacher, but the community makes the most of what it has.

Ekeh will spend the coming weeks visiting all the schools before making his final decision.

His advice to other high school students is simple: "Like my parents always told us, the secret to success is unbridled resolve."

Related: Private college with the biggest payoff

Related: University of Phoenix has lost half its students

CNNMoney (New York) April 5, 2015: 8:39 PM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/04/pf/college/immigrant-accepted-all-ivy-league-schools-harold-ekeh/index.html?sr=twmoney040415ivy0615story

Christian Dimkpa is the Research Scientist, Plant-Soil Biology at the Virtual Fertilizer Research Center (VFRC), Washington, DC. He coordinates the research activities of VFRC collaborators working to develop novel fertilizers and fertilizer delivery strategies. Prior to joining VFRC in March 2014, Christian was a Research Assistant Professor at the Biology Department of Utah State University Logan, Utah, United States, where, as a co-Principal Investigator on a United States Department of Agriculture-funded project, he investigated the interaction of plants and plant-associated microbes with metallic nanoparticles. In June 2009, he obtained his doctorate in Natural Sciences (plant-microbe-metal interactions) at the Friedrich Schiller University/International Max Planck Research School, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Jena, Germany. In September 2005, he obtained his MSc in Plant Molecular Biology from the Inter-university program, Vrije University Brussels & University of Leuven, Belgium; and in 1998, his Higher National Diploma in Crop Production Technology at the College of Agriculture, Owerri, Nigeria. Between 1999 and 2003, he was a Research Supervisor at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria, where he was involved in crop improvement research on plantains and bananas. He has published over 40 journal articles and book chapters, most on the interaction of plants and/or plant-associated soil microbes with metallic micronutrients. He has given numerous scientific presentations in both national and international meetings and conferences.

http://www.vfrc.org/About/VFRC_Key_Staff

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