By Latrishka Thomas
Having two parents who are educators has inspired Chidindu Ohaegbulam – Antigua and Barbuda’s top CSEC student for 2022 – to aim to “inspire other generations to love physics” by becoming a university professor.
Ohaegbulam, who attended St Joseph’s Academy, completed an incredible 23 subjects with 21 grade ones and two grade twos, making him the country’s top CSEC scholar.
He is the eldest son of Augustine Ohaegbulam, a veteran educator who came out of retirement and now teaches physics at the Divine Academy of Excellence, and Ijeoma Ohaegbulam, a human and social biology teacher at the Antigua Girls’ High School.
The 17-year-old said that physics is his favourite subject thanks to his dad and teachers who honed his love for the subject.
“It helps you to see the world in a different perspective,” he remarked.
Ohaegbulam specifically wants to teach at Oxford University and become a lead researcher.
He is currently a student at Island Academy within the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.
He told Observer that completing so many subject areas was not easy, but said it would not be impossible for others to do.
“It’s mainly about not letting distractions get the best of you,” he advised.
The football and videogame lover went on to share that music helped to make studying less tedious and also helped him to retain information.
“Whenever I zone out, the music helps me to refocus and to recall things a bit more than usual because if I remember a part of a song that I was using to study something it will literally help me to recall exactly what I read,” he explained.
Ohaegbulam did not take all the credit for his success, however. He said that thanks to the sacrifices of his family and the motivation from his ‘Operation CXC’ group at school he was able to cop those 23 subjects.
He recommended that students struggling in school latch on to a suitable peer because “hearing it from the student who actually got the information and learned it themselves, maybe they could pass on how they learned it to the struggling friend”.
