Adewale Babatunde is a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Lagos, who obtained a B.Sc in Petroleum and Gas Engineering with a CGPA of 4.90/5.0, finishing as the second best graduating student in his class and with several undergraduate scholarship awards. He was born and raised in Surulere, Lagos State, and is the second of three children in a family of four. Adewale is currently undergoing the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as an Operations Trainee at Montego Upstream Services Limited where he learns from and contributes to the planning and execution of contracted field projects pertaining to drilling support. Other than constantly seeking out opportunities to volunteer for impactive initiatives, he enjoys playing football, watching movies, and reading fiction novels. Adewale found out about MT Scholarships on a WhatsApp group chat and is excitedly grateful for the opportunity to be able to apply to schools in the US with graduate programs that align with his career interests, and consequently be on the path to achieving his short- and long-term goals in academia, private sector, and public service.

AGBAJE Kafilat Omoshalewa was born 24th March, 1994 in Ilesha, Osun State, the first of five children composed of two females and three males in a nuclear family of seven. A trained Pharmacist by profession, she is currently pursuing her Masters degree program, having graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife with a distinction (Grade point of 4.83/5.00), and being the recipient of eight different awards. Kafilat’s interests is in Pharmacognosy, with a view to developing new lead drug molecules from the vast resources available in nature. Also, she wishes to address a major challenge in alternative /complementary medicine which bothers on lack of standardization by working with decision makers in organization such as the WHO and Centre for Disease Control to initiate and advance policies on standardization of herbal medicines. This, in her view, is necessary as increasing number of people adopt herbal medicines as their first port of call for their primary health care needs. In her words “Personally, this scholarship is important because beyond covering the cost of my GRE exam, the mentoring aspect holds huge potential for building my capacity and experience. Essentially, I know the importance of mentorship and consequences of lack of it. For instance, given my academic performances, people’s expectation is that I would have long taken the GRE exam, unfortunately because of lack of information and mentor to guide in this direction, it had to be delayed.” She continues, “I believe I will be successful in the USA due to the quality of training I have received here in Nigeria, and also given this rare opportunity of being mentored by someone who has gone through the same process and recorded huge success.”

I am a graduate of Information Technology with a First-Class Degree from the Department of Information Technology Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State.  I am passionate about software engineering and behavioral biometrics. I have industry experience in elicitation, analysis, design, implementation, integration, deployment, and maintenance of software projects.  I am determined, and goal-driven, building progress toward project milestones, quality assurance, and on-time delivery. In achieving these qualities I believe in being patient and willing to learn new things and unlearn old ones where necessary. My hobbies are playing board games and teaching. I believe my academic background, innovative nature, industry experience, and deep passion for learning would provide me with the credentials needed to thrive in my Ph.D. in the US

I grew up in a family of four including my mother and my siblings. We worked very hard to make attending school a reality and this has imbibed in me hardwork, perseverance and hope. From a young age, I had cherished nature at a deeper level. I always wanted to know why the physical world worked as it did. This passion drove me to the sciences and I attended Command day secondary school Ojo, Lagos and went on to study physics at Obafemi Awolowo University. The same passion burns in me today and I seek to expand my experiences and develop acumen by pursuing a PhD. My interests outside of science and nature are watching football and playing video games. I am grateful to God Almighty, for his mercies endureth forever.

My name is Chilaka, Jonathan Nzubechi  and some of my friends call me "jonadium". I hail from Ezinihitte mbaise LGA in Imo state and I am the first of 3 children. I was born and raised in the commercial city of Aba, Abia state Nigeria where I also had my primary and secondary education.  In 2018, I obtained a BSc in Chemistry with First class (Hons) from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, and had my name added to the Dean's Roll of Honour. As a first generation graduate in the family, obtaining a BSc was a big achievement but my goal is bigger than a BSc. I would love to continue my graduate studies in the field of Chemistry with research interest in organic synthesis.  My dream of getting into graduate school in America came to a halt because of the funds needed to take the English proficiency test, Graduate record examination and make other documents available. Coming across the Michael Taiwo Scholarship advert on a group “First Class Leaders Network” I looked up the website - mtscholarships.org , and I could sense a panacea to my challenges so I did not hesitate to apply because it promises not just the provision of funds for the necessary tests and application fees but also mentorship from scholars who have first-hand experience of the challenges and limitations that come with pursuing graduate studies abroad. And with this scholarship, my dream has been resuscitated. Having scaled through the tough hurdles of getting a degree from a Nigerian University, I have no iota of doubt that I will do well in my graduate studies abroad. Besides academics, I sing, I love football and I am a big fan of Chelsea FC.

My name is Chime Chukwudalu, everyone calls me Chime (a lot easier to pronounce than Chukwudalu ). I am 25 years of age, born and brought up in Lagos, although tertiary education took me to the Eastern part of Nigeria. As a result of spending much of my life in Lagos, I understand Yoruba, albeit cannot speak it fluently, I understand and speak Igbo fluently and can also speak a smattering of Hausa, French and German language. I am the first son and second child in a family of seven children. I have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) where I graduated as the best student in the Automotive Engineering major. Presently, I am rounding off a Masters degree program in Petroleum Engineering and Project Development at the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS Uniport), supported by Total E&P Nigeria Limited. My hobbies include light weight body building, reading, creative arts and solving business case challenges. During my undergraduate education program, I was part of a team that developed an online platform for the solution of student’s accommodation problems in FUTO, this solution went on to win second place at the Student Innovation Challenge (SIC) Regional competition in 2018. I also led a team that placed among the top 15 venture entries in Nigeria at the Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology (NOGTECH) Hackathon 2020. The Michael Taiwo scholarship will help me foot the bills for graduate program applications in the US and Canada, enabling me to focus on attaining the necessary requirements for securing placement at the best graduate schools in the world. I initially found out about the Michael Taiwo scholarship via a thread on Nairaland. I am really passionate about energy, leadership and public policy. There are graduate programs that bridge these important areas and I plan to go for them, take for example; MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Policy Program, etc. I plan to come back to Nigeria, launch a world class startup company in the Energy space and take up public leadership/service in due course. I think I would be successful in the US because of a strong drive to make the best of every opportunity I get. Where I am from, opportunities are never wasted; there is only one direction and that is forward.

I’m Daniel Yahya, born and raised in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. I’m fluent in both English and Yoruba, and I’m the second child with two siblings. I am currently on my National Youth Service Corps Program at Ove Arup and Partners Nigeria Limited. I’m a first-class graduate of the University of Ibadan, and I graduated as the best student in the Faculty of Technology, University of Ibadan. I love music, and I enjoy playing the piano. Also, I like playing football and table tennis. I got to know about this scholarship through a friend that sent me the link on WhatsApp. I intend to further my studies in civil engineering, majoring in structural engineering. To acquire enough knowledge and skills in my field of study, I plan to obtain a Ph.D. degree.

Dare Ogungbemi is a 26 yr old native of Ibadan, Oyo State. The second born in a family of three kids, he enjoys reading and meeting people and is currently employed as a graduate engineer in Ove Arup and partners Nigeria. A First-class graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, he graduated as the best student in the department of Civil Engineering and was the recipient of the Ifedayo Akintunde Geotechnical Engineering prize for the student with the best overall performance in Geotechnical Engineering in the B.Sc. degree examination in Civil Engineering for Dec 2018. Dare loves challenges as he sees them as the opportunity to learn new things. He learnt about the scholarship through a friend who uploaded it on his graduating class WhatsApp group and believes that getting to write this exam moves him closer to the actualization of his dream of obtaining a Master’s degree in the US. He is interested in specializing in water resources/hydraulics engineering and plans to gather substantial level of experience from the high level of technological know-how available in the US before coming back to Nigeria to apply the knowledge learnt.

Adenike AdelakunNN is a 24 yr old graduate of the University of Ibadan where she completed her undergraduate studies, earning distinctions in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutics, and bagging a First Class degree along with the 2018 award for the best graduating student with a CGPA of 6.8/7.0 in the Faculty of Pharmacy. Born and raised in Ibadan, Oyo State in Western Nigeria, she is the first child in a family of six. She is currently on her one-year National Youth Service Corp practicing as a pharmacist and enjoys travelling, playing board games, reading, learning and participating in new adventures- ranging from the familiar – volunteering for health outreaches in her professional capacity as a pharmacist and the unfamiliar – a new passion and interest in volley ball. Nike learnt about the scholarship when her sister sent her the link to the JarusHub site where the scholarship was posted and is grateful to have this opportunity to continue in the pursuit of her dreams to pursue graduate studies in the US.

Edith Muolokwu is the first child of a family of seven(7) and hails from Anambra State, Nigeria. Born in Bauchi State,she grew up within three states in Nigeria including Bauchi, Anambra and Rivers state. She obtained her bachelor in Pharmacy degree from the prestigious University of Port Harcourt, Rivers state, after which she proceeded for a one year internship program at the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control(NAFDAC). Afer her internship program, she partook in the one year mandatory national youth service where she served at St. Catherine's Specialist Hospital, Abuja.  During her youth service, she started pursuing her dreams of going to a graduate school in the United States. During the process, she came across a friend currently undergoing his PhD program in the United States who told her about MT Scholarship. She is a co-founder of GHACAF- Give her chance Africa foundation where she functions as the international missions coordinator. GHACAF, a Non-Profit organization that aims at supporting persons infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and cancer through the provision of free drugs and testing services. The foundation has been operating successfully since 2019 and has expanded services to include the provision of fundamental knowledge on human rights, especially to women within the rural communities. Her graduate studies plan is to equip herself with the right tools and skills required to positively impact Nigeria’s pharmaceutical Industries  and the world at large with her broaden knowledge on Drug Delivery Systems as well as Gene therapy . Upon graduation, she plans to first bring the knowledge back home to her country to consult for pharmaceutical firms in the area of drug delivery systems. In addition to the Non-Profit organization, she runs a functional health blog and a YouTube channel, where she give tips on how to study abroad e.t.c. Her hobbies includes Research, volunteering, studying, filming  and photography.