I am Saheed Sunday, a graduate of the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts, with a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.59. If you asked me in 100 or 200 level, I'd have called my journey fulfilling, I was reeling from being the first person in my family to attend university. Ask me now, and it's the opposite: my journey was humbling, I met people who made me marvel at how they think and talk, and who taught me that being a first-generation undergraduate isn't a unique selling point on its own.
My proudest achievement as an undergraduate was winning Word War, the biggest inter-faculty debate on campus, something the Faculty of Arts had entered five times before me and come out empty-handed every time. It meant something that in my very first attempt, my friend Adewunmi and I brought the title home for the entire faculty. I served as President of the Ingenious Writers' Society, President of the Young Grammarians' Hub, and Call-Out Chairperson of the LASU Debate Society.
My biggest challenge was balance, in 2023 I won a national poetry competition, became a Friend of Ireland, and was selected as one of five Nigerian poets for a book project with the Irish Embassy, whose launch overlapped with an exam right after I flew back from Abuja, which I managed by leaning on friends for past questions and support in advance. The best way to be academically excellent isn't to only read, you also have to discuss what you've read, a lesson I picked up from running free tutorials for coursemates since 100 level.
My ecosystem, the friends with sharp minds, the best public speakers and poets on campus, has been my biggest source of inspiration, and I racked up a long list of honours along the way, including the Lagos Poem Project, the Poetry Archive Award UK, the ZODML Poetry Prize, the Quramo Poetry Prize, and multiple Word War and debate championships with the LASU Debate Society.
My advice to current and incoming students is the same lesson that shaped me: don't only read, discuss what you've read, and take on free tutorials for your coursemates if you can. As I like to say: you torched me, watch how I lit.