Nigerian-born Chidiebere Akusobi has notched many
impressive academic achievements in his short life.
The 25-year old studied ecology and evolutionary
biology as an undergraduate at Yale, then earned his
master's in biochemistry from the University of
Cambridge. Now he's three years into a joint PhD/MD program researching cures for infectious diseases at
Harvard and MIT. But if you ask him, he'll tell you that the biggest
academic hurdle he ever had to overcome was in the
fifth grade. That's when Akusobi, who had moved
from Nigeria to the impoverished New York City
neighborhood of the South Bronx when he was two
years old, was accepted into the rigorous New York City Prep for Prep program. The program is an educational boot camp that selects
roughly 225 promising students a year from the
poorest New York City neighborhoods and grooms
them for scholarships to attend the city's top private
schools. For 14 months, students were assigned six hours of
homework a day -- on top of their normal workload
-- and they were expected to read one book a week,
he said. "I remember July 4th, 2001, everyone was
outside and there were fireworks. I was
inside and my mom was keeping me awake
as I read," he said. But Akusobi was
determined to complete the program. "I was
taught that [education] was our shot of the American Dream," he said When he was done, he had won a full academic
scholarship to Horace Mann, one of the most
prestigious prep schools in New York City. Once
Akusobi enrolled, finding his place in the school's
rarefied halls became his next big challenge. He was
only 12 and the stark contrast between he and the other mostly white, wealthy students was striking. "I realized that there are people that go on
vacations every summer or have summer
houses or drivers," he said. "It's funny to go to
a school where kids have trust funds and then
to take the bus home to the South Bronx." At the time, Akusobi's father was working
three jobs while also studying to become a
nurse. His mother, who was also pursuing a
nursing degree, worked as a home health
aide. "They were working to support me and my
three younger siblings. That's the reason they
left Nigeria, to provide a better life," he said. Akusobi took full advantage of what Horace Mann
had to offer. He became head of the dance team and
even wrote and acted in a one act show. "I just took advantage of all the opportunities
that I could and did well enough that I got into
Yale," he said. But his true passion was medicine. Even though he
had left Nigeria at a young age, Akusobi remained
close to family members who still live in the country.
"When I go to Nigeria there's a sense of being home
because that's where my folks grew up," he said. But the attachments have come with heartache each
time he receives news of a family member or friend
who has passed away from an infectious disease,
like malaria or HIV. "It's shocking the toll that infectious diseases
have. I could work on fixing that. There's real
impact that has to be made," he said. And Akusobi is getting closer to that goal. Recently,
he was granted one of the Paul and Daisy Soros
Fellowships for New Americans, which will pay up to
$90,000 for his joint PhD/MD program at Harvard and
MIT. Besides his research at Harvard/MIT, Akusobi has
advocated on a variety of issues, especially those
dealing with racial equality and diversity in medicine.
He helped organize the WhiteCoat4BlackLives
movement on Harvard Medical School's campus to
commemorate Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two black men whose deaths at the hands of the police
spurred a national movement against police brutality
and highlighted the issue of racism in America. He has also taken a leadership role at the Student
National Medical Association, which seeks to help get
more minorities like Akusobi involved in the practice
of medicine. "From what I've seen there are so many
students that have potential," he said. "But
there is systemic injustice and
institutionalized racism that doesn't allow
people to get to where they need to be." While he believes in the American Dream, Akusobi
says he realizes it isn't a reality for many people,
especially those who didn't get the opportunities he
did."The American Dream for a lot of people is a
fantasy. I have experienced sub par schools
with sub par teachers," he said. "An
elementary school student attending those
schools and living in a neighborhood without
quality food or after-school opportunities and surrounded by people in that situation. For a
kid in that situation it's easy to see how they
might feel like the American Dream doesn't
exist."