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Olayiwola and Onyejekwe families pay it forward

The Olayiwola and Onyejekwe families are so thankful. 

Thankful for the opportunities since the 1970s they first had as students then as a faculty member and staff at The Ohio State University since the 1970s, with Professors Okey and Ego Onyejekwe blazing the trail. Thankful for having all four Onyejekwe children (Okey Jr., J. Nwando, Sylvia and Emeka) being Morrill Scholars during their undergraduate years, preparing them to become the successful doctors and lawyers they are today. Thankful for having a grandchild as a current Buckeye first-year student, Darius Olayiwola, also a Morrill Scholar, following in the footsteps of his mother, Dr. Nwando Olayiwola (nee Onyejekwe). 

This is why the Olayiwola and Onyejekwe families have begun a new scholarship fund to help ODI Scholars who are seeking graduate and professional school opportunities and for whom financial resources may be a barrier. 

 "Being able to pour into places and communities where people didn't have the same level of opportunity has been really really important to us,” Dr. Nwando Olayiwola said. “We know so many brilliant students who cannot achieve their graduate and professional dreams because the cost to even apply or prepare is prohibitive, not because they lack qualifications or talent.” The Olayiwola/Onyejekwe fund supports ODI Scholars who need help in paying for prep courses, exam registration fees, tutoring sessions, travel costs for graduate and professional journeys as well as fees for the actual tests for applying to medical and law school, the MCAT and/or LSAT. Her husband, Paul Olayiwola, states “I have seen the impact of ODI on our family, for three generations now, including our son Darius. It feels right to give back in this way.”

For the Olayiwola and Onyejekwe families, it's a chance to give young Buckeyes a hand up as they push for academic excellence. "I owe so much of who I am to the foundations, the opportunities, the exposure, and the experiences I had to Ohio State," said Dr. Nwando Olayiwola, the current president of the Advocate National Center for Health Equity and Senior Vice President at Advocate Health. Her parents agree. Her father, professor Okey Onyejekwe, former professor in the OSU Department of African and African American Studies and Director of the Ohio State University’s Center for African Studies says he “cannot imagine a better foundation for the rest of our children’s lives than what they got at Ohio State.” Dr. Egondu Onyejekwe, her mother, the former Ohio State Director of Emerging Technologies recalls vividly how “well-prepared for the world Ohio State made my children. The many bright and talented ODI students should have the same opportunities.”