By Gabriel Ufok
We are all in a quest for a better life; a today better than yesterday and a tomorrow better than today. For the students at Active Minds Yola Model School YMS, that tomorrow is today, and It all begins at the 2nd edition of the Active Minds YMS talent show, an inspiring journey of talent, leadership, innovation and excellence.
Once a year, the Active Minds YMS host a student talent show that’s attract students from far and wide, fuelling entrepreneurship, empowering retail startups, and paving the way for global expansion powered by locally made products and Ideas. On this special day, 8 student clubs would present a socially innovative project that they have each been working on for the past 1 year. Each product aims to solve 1 problem in Yola, Nigeria.
At the end, three winner emerges who receive seed funding to grow and expand their new businesses product or ideas.
This years winners, the Junior Engineers Technicians and Scientist JETs Club developed a water tank sensor, a simple, practical, low cost, solution that has a significant impact on water wastage. The device sets off an alarm to alert the user once his or water tank is full thereby, helping us save precious water in the region.
The really colourful event had 7 other unique and remarkable projects filled with innovative, creative and talented students, parents, special guest, staff and volunteers of the Active Minds Yola Model School community
Over 40 awards and a total of N260,000 in cash prizes was handed out
Online, the story is even more remarkable. The event reached over 800k accounts on Instagram with over 5million views, The organisation’s account has gone from 1k followers to 11k followers in just 4 weeks with news features from several national dailys.
The proprietress, Mrs. Cordelia Wogu who established YMS in 1996 described the event as reflective of the innovative and forward thinking culture at YMS. “Our biggest asset is our students. We are very proud of them and are determined to give them all the best support that we can”.
Mrs. Wogu’s statement constitute a refreshing change to the deteriorating standards of education in the country and our collective inability to harness the overflowing human capital at our disposal.
The president of the American University of Nigeria, Dr. DeWayne Frazier, a leader in the academic and development space and a special guest at the talent show, toured the exhibition ground, building trust, shoring confidence and cementing the belief that anything is possible amongst the students. “Follow your dreams and never, ever, ever give up” President Frazier said.
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This years theme is #BuyNaijatoGrowtheNaira like the saying goes, charity begins at home, so before we think of the abroad, we must first look inward’ right here within our Yola community.
The Dean of student affairs of American university of Nigeria Dean Byron Bullock in his Keynote speech described the event as a phenomenon and the right catalyst for change in the region. He ended up awarding $100 to the recipient of Student Leader of the Year Award, Bashir Umar,
The Club’s Executive Director Emmanuel Wogu whose vision gave birth to the talent show, said that the show represents an incredible opportunity for growth. “What really excites me is the future, think about it, if teenagers are producing technologies like this now, what will they be producing 5 years from now? 10 years from now? This is what Active Minds Yola Model School represent, an opportunity to create the tomorrow we want to see today. It’s about invoking the spirit of positivity and possibility and moving people from an I can’t to an I can attitude because if you can think it, you can do it. Anything is possible.”
Education is important for equal access to opportunities, a path to a higher quality of life, gender and social equity. For instance, the 2023 Nigerian Economic Group report states that “an educated child from a low-income family has a better chance of experiencing a positive change in their social status than an uneducated or inadequately educated child. The latter are more likely to experience economic hardships later in life.” Hence the importance of Edu-led talent shows like this one can not be overstated.
These are the moments we live for; moments where we are inspired to debate and to create and more importantly to update and prepare for the future. As young Active minds continue their quest for a better Yola, a better Adamawa state, a better Nigeria,We hope that you are inspired.
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