Meet Mr. Philip Okafor, a 200 level student of Microbiology and recipient of the Dean’s Special Prize for Exemplary Behaviour.
Mr. Philip Okafor found a wallet belonging to another student and containing a substantial amount of money. He looked everywhere until he finally found the owner, (name withheld) another 200 level student of Environmental Management and Toxicology. This good deed was brought to the attention of the Dean who thanked Mr. Okafor for his exemplary behaviour and offered him unfettered access to the Dean’s Office should there be any need for him to come.
Two months or so down the line, Mr. Okafor walked into the Dean’s Office after booking an appointment by telephone. He had come to request the Dean to help him talk to his Head of Department to allow him take his second semester examinations. Philip was yet to pay his school charges for the current session and was in no way sure of being able to raise the money before the exams owing to his present challenging situation. He assured that he would be able to pay the school charges for this and the next session together when school re-opens next session.
Philip had refused just two months or so earlier to take the money in the wallet he found to pay his school charges, even though the money found in that wallet was well over what was required to pay his school charges of forty-five thousand and six hundred naira (NGN45,600.00). He chose rather to return the wallet and its content to the owner in the midst of his own need even when many in his shoes would have seen this as “help from above”
Impressed by his exemplary character, the Dean on behalf of Faculty offered Philip exempt from school charges not only for the current session for which he was owing but all through his period of undergraduate studies in the Faculty. Philip therefore becomes the first recipient of the Dean’s Special Prize for Exemplary Behaviour. He has since received his letter of award and the Faculty has since paid Philip’s outstanding school charges. I am happy to announce too that he is currently writing his second semester exams undisturbed.
We congratulate Mr. Philip Okafor.
Prof. N. E. J. Orhue
Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
