Screening Exercise 3---Oral Interview

I used Google to prepare a little. I got to know the history of the school, its presidents both past and present and  host of its alumni.

For the very first time I am going to be in front of Caucasians, the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Scholarship Board and a host of its members. I had never been that nervous all my life. I could hear my heart beat like a live band, I felt like I had a loudspeaker plugged to my heart. I managed to keep calm and reduce my nervousness. I listened to some music to cool off as I arrived at the Scholarship Board.

When I arrived, the security personnel asked my name and my local government area. He looked up to me in amazement as he could not believe that I was the one. He asked me a few personal questions and then he allowed me in. I got into the compound, met my friends for the first time, the people I was contesting against. I got to know them a little because if I were going to the USA, I'm going there with one of them. We had a lot of time to talk and got to know each other quite well because we spent the whole day there. At 2pm the oral interview had begun, it was done according to local government areas. Brass students went for the interview first, then Ekeremor students, it got to my turn a bit past 8pm. It was a short interview not lasting any longer than 30 minutes.

During the interview, all my nervousness seized.  I felt free talking to them and expressing my feelings and expectations about going to The Lincoln University. After the Interview, we had to wait for more information from the Board so we waited till 11pm and by that time, we were told to go home and wait for news about the students who succeeded. They would be contacted in two days time via SMS so we should go home and pray.

I got home close to midnight and headed straight for my bed. The night was short because I was stressed out.

Math Result Released

I got up by 3am on Sunday the first of December 2013 just so I wouldn't miss the 6am news on radio. I listened to my favorite list of songs, played games for sometime and started pacing around the room. By 5:30am everyone in the house was already awake and waiting for the announcement.

The news came, we listened carefully with all anxiety and nervousness, my heart pounded thrice as fast as it did.  I was sweating as it got to Nembe local government area, the local government before mine. It got to my local government area(OGBIA), it was as if the whole world came to a halt as my name was the first on the list. The shout of joy that filled my house didn't give me the opportunity to listen to the rest of the news. After all the shouting and jumping we had to call someone in the village to tell us the rest of the news.

To everyone at home it was over, I had won again but it’s just a case of "two down one more to go". Next up on the line was Oral interview something I'd never done before.

Screening Exercise 2---Mathematics Test

I had studied the whole day but I still wasn’t satisfied with myself and what I had read. I couldn’t sleep that night maybe because I was curious about the test or maybe I was just anxious, whichever it was, it made no difference since I couldn’t sleep.

Finally the hard battle was won and the day had prevailed over the night, The long  wait was drawing to a halt as the clock ticks. We were supposed to be at Peace Park by 10am on Saturday November 30,2013 for the mathematics test but I was ready by 7am. I just sat on my couch trying to guess some possible questions. I left home by 9am and got to the venue at 9:30.

The officials came around by 10am and made a roll call, got us into a bus and had us taken to the Ijaw House for the mathematics test. We started late; something I saw coming right from the start but it was surely a worthy wait. We were soon joined by the two representatives of The Lincoln University and the Chairman, Bayelsa State Scholarship Board-Evang. Foster Ogola. The test started and within 2 hours we were through with it.

At the time of this entry, I still can’t tell which of the tests was easier. The result of the mathematics test as we were told would be announced the following day by 6am. It wasn’t a long wait since I got home in the evening and all I had to do was bathe, eat and sleep I was more frustrated and annoyed at my performance in the mathematics test than I was with my English performance.

English Test Scores Released

I got up happy that fateful morning not because of the uncertain future or me expecting good news or something, but because I had a schedule to keep up with. I had  an arrangement to go work with my aunt at the Samson Siasia sports complex. I got prepared and left the house about 8am.

It wasn’t long after I arrived at my destination that I received a call from my mum, she was overly excited on the phone; something that rarely happens. She had received a call from my uncle in the village that he heard my name on the radio and that I was among the 98 students who succeeded in the English test.

It had been a week and two days and I had forgotten about the test I had taken a week before. It was unbelievable to me. I had mixed feelings about the news; the joy I felt,the feeling of victory I felt, the excitement I had, all made up for the frustration and pain I felt on the day of the test. Deep down I knew it was not yet over, mathematics test is just two days away, yes, I have been victorious against 5763 students. Now only 98 students left but you got to say “only 98 very good students left”.

The news got home before me, so when I got home it was celebration all the way. I got a few books I could use for studying and then went on to sleep.

Screening Exercise--English Test

There is such a big difference between seeing or hearing numbers and meeting people representing that number.There were 5763 people standing before me; it was like Mount Zion. Early that faithful day, I got up by 7:00am, prepared myself as we were supposed to be at the venue by 8am. I called my neighbors who also applied for the scholarship, we got to the centre which was Peace Park, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State at 7:45am. Everyone who came before me was in a line or trying to find a line to join.

I met friends and colleagues from my school days, some I had not seen for as long as five years. At  first it was like a reunion ,we talked, laughed, shared hugs, shook hands but all of it came to a halt when we got into the gate and were separated to sit according to our local government areas. People kept flooding in until there was no more space to accommodate the applicants. I turned to my friend and said “faith is when I look at all these people and tell you, SEE YOU AT LINCOLN”. Each day has 24 hours but time tends to slow down when you are not doing anything apart from standing. It was like a military training or something, I had been standing from 8am till 4pm, standing alone wouldn’t have been so frustrating; at one point of the day it was so hot that I felt like taking off my clothes but for modesty sake I did not. Just when I was getting used to the heat a storm came, everyone had to gather at certain corners of the Peace Park. I felt like I was in a compression box because I was so small, everyone was trying to push me out of my position and into the storm.  

They were calling the names alphabetically and mine started with “I” so I was quite behind. My time came, I got into the bus and was taken to the Samson Siasia sports complex. For everything there is a time and a season, behold the time for standing had passed and the time for sitting had begun. I sat at the sports stadium for over two hours before the test started. The English question paper had two sections [1] Essay [2] Comprehension. I always loved comprehension before essay so I turned to the comprehension part, read it over and over again but couldn’t get the central Idea of the comprehension so I got the questions in my head and started reading again.I couldn't find a solution to much of the questions. At this point it was clear to me that my result solely depends on my essay writing skills. I turned to the essay “Identity; is it something we were born with or it’s something we build for ourselves.”

I did my best on the essay and struggled with the comprehension. I finished just in time before the coordinator screamed “SUBMIT YOUR PAPERS”. We were told to sit and wait for the next paper but nobody was willing to spend the night at sports complex. I was among the last people to leave the stadium due to my frustration about the test because it was clear to me that I didn’t do extraordinarily well.  

The day ended with me walking home because I couldn’t stand and wait for a cab to come take me home. I got home around 9pm, tired and exhausted,  I glorified God for Tuesday November 19, 2013. It  was the first time I ever wrote a scholarship  test brought about by the state government.

Applying For Lincoln Scholarship

The noise from my younger ones preparing for school, my neighbors preparing for work and carrying out their domestic duties woke me up by 7am, as always. I got up from my bed, cleaned up, with no special feeling whatsoever about what the day has in store for me. I went for a morning walk along my street; something I rarely do but I did it that morning anyway. While I was taking that walk, I met a friend; the kind who always gives good news and is always updated with the happenings in the state. He told me to go check the Ministry of Education’s notice board, that, a scholarship scheme for both science and art students may be in place. He didn’t know what university or country the scholarship was for.

I returned home, took my bath, got dressed, and made my way to the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education at Civil Servants Quarters, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. I got to the office very much unprepared for what I saw; a crowd, wasn’t much, but very much so,neither was the time. It was Tuesday November 12, 2013. Applications were being received and in a weeks’ time the screening tests would be held. I did not carry  documents to prove that I was a qualified applicant; I returned home and retrieved them.I also wrote my application letter and went on to submit it. I was in  such a hurry that I forgot to carry my  passport along so I had to secure new ones.  This was done with my pocket money since I didn’t let anyone know about what I was doing. I was pretty satisfied with what I had done because I was doing it by myself without the help of anyone.

Two days past and it came to my notice that application forms were being given out at the Bayelsa state Scholarship board, I was very confused whether I should go and fill it out again or not. After  a day of thinking and analyzing, I decided to go fill out the form at the Bayelsa State Scholarship  Board. On getting there, I found out that I had misplaced my passports again so I had to take new ones. This time, I was made to write my application letter  in front of my liaison officer. When I  was through with the letter, I was  given a form to complete, this was the time I knew the University I would be going to and it’s location. It was Friday,November 15,2013 and the advertisement displayed showed that the screening tests would be held on Tuesday November 19,2013 ; three days after all applications had been submitted.

Most people I met while applying for this scholarship rendered no words of encouragement rather they advised me to let go of the whole process.They said that Bayelsa State is not a State where scholarships were given to students based on merit. Even the students applying for the scholarship alongside me where not helpful, most of them believed it was just a scam and that the sixteen people going to The Lincoln University had already been chosen ; we were just for the public to see. I never lost my faith or hope for a transparent screening and selection system until I saw the total number of students who applied for the scholarship: 5,763. I was moved by that figure because even if the  screening and selection process was transparent , how sure am I that I'll beat those people to be among the sixteen people going to the USA to study at the prestigious Lincoln University PA, the first historically black school, the University our very own first president Nnamdi Azikwe attended. All faith I had in myself left me once I saw that number.

Prologue

Nigeria is a country in which the chances of meeting a youth who believes in the credibility of the government is quite low but those chances are even more reduced when you are in  the NIGER DELTA. The Bayelsa State government has always been the type that no one believes in, “THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GROW POORER” policy. A system of government where the middle class down to the lower class cannot expect anything good from the government. That was the  kind of government we had here in Bayelsa State.

The Ijaw youths are a self sustaining people, a people who persevere during hard times,a  people who love hard work, a people who stand up for what is right and most of all, a people who believe in the dignity of labour and hard work. I know this, because I’m one of such people. We never left our fates to government because we knew the kind of government we were used to, but what we didn’t know was that things have changed.

The Bayelsa State Scholarship Board has been in place for a while but only to those who know officials in high offices, so when this opportunity came along, it brought about mixed feelings whether to apply or not. Should we waste our time to apply?  That was the question on everyones mind. Seldom do I believe in the credibility of the government or that of the Scholarship board but here I am, a successful candidate of The Lincoln University Scholarship  Scheme.

This Scholarship Scheme is one of a kind; nothing like this has ever happened before, something of this sort may never happen again: either ways, my gratitude goes to Hon Seriake Dickson, the executive governor of Bayelsa state for giving me this  opportunity to study at the prestigious Lincoln University,PA.

“TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN MUCH IS EXPECTED”. Now, I’m faced with the challenge of not disappointing the Bayelsa State government nor my family and friends :most of all, I am challenged to never disappoint myself for I am,BEST OF THE BEST.

Let’s go back to how it all happened.

Starting Off

This was how I looked before I got the Lincoln University Scholarship. I had nothing else to think about except; bathe and take pictures, now I take pictures not only for fun but for business as well.

I really can't say in which i look better, one thing is for sure things change. Just need to decide whether it's for the Better or.........worse.

About Me

Richard Imorobeh Igbiriki, also referred to as "Senior", is  a computer science major at The Lincoln University. Richard is a Nigerian born scientist whose love for education paved way for him to study in the United States. After graduating high school at the age of 16, Richard decided to attend a computer training institute in 2011 instead of going directly to college. Shortly after completing the certificaion program, Richard gained admission into the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island in 2012 to study Biochemistry, a childhood dream course. It was however only a matter of time before he realized that his future wasn't in the lab but in designing software applications. Richard got the opportunity to chase this new dream when the Bayelsa State government provided an opportunity for outstanding students to study in the United States. This opportunity came two years into Richard's Biochemistry program but he was determined to pursue a career in software engineering and app development so he applied for the scholarship. The scholarship was available for only 21 students but 5763 applications were submitted. After a series of competitive selection processes, he was accepted to study computer science at The Lincoln university in 2013 but arrived the U.S early 2014. Richard is expected to complete his Bsc in Computer Science in May 2017.