3 NSMQ Past Winners And Contestant And What They Currently Do For A Living
- The National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) commenced in 1993 and has had countless brilliant students from various secondary schools in Ghana competing in it over the years
- Laurinda Adusu-Donkor and her St Roses Senior High School teammates were among the first students to ever compete in the NSMQ. She is now head of department at 37 Military Hospital
- Bubune Adih, a former MTN employee, won the championship for Mfantsipim School in 1999 with his teammates and Paul Azunre, a former Opoku Ware NSMQ contest won in 2002
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The National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) has had 1000s of brilliant students participating since its inception in 1993. The goal of the quiz has been to promote the study of the sciences and mathematics and help students develop quick thinking, probing and scientific minds about the things around them while fostering healthy academic rivalry among senior high schools. It is safe to say that the goal has been achieved to a large extent.
Contestants move on to pursue various ventures after passing through the scheme. YEN.com.gh has, therefore, highlighted three of the earliest candidates to have ever participated in the NSMQ and what they have been up to over the years.
1. Laurinda Adusu-Donkor, Biomedical Scientist At 37 Military Hospital, Army Officer and former NSMQ 1993 contestant
Source: UGC
Lt Col Laurinda Xolali Adusu-Donkor was a contestant in the very first edition of the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) in 1993.
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She represented her school St Roses Senior High School, alongside her colleagues Baaba Biden and Eunice Owusu Ansah.
St Roses SHS was unfortunately kicked out by Achimota School at the semi-finals stage in the southern sector. That year, Prempeh College emerged winners, making them the first-ever secondary school in history to lift the trophy.
After the quiz, Laurinda gained admission to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where she pursued a degree in Biochemistry and graduated in 1999.
In 2002, she followed her dream of serving her country and enlisted in the Ghana Armed Forces. Her career in the military started as a Biomedical Scientist at the Chemical Pathology and Immunology Department of 37 Military Hospital.
Source: UGC
In a recent interview, Lt Col Laurinda Xolali Adusu-Donkor shared the actual inspiration behind joining the military;
"We were on our way to compete in the then Brilliance National Science and Maths Quiz when our bus got to 37 Military Hospital. A friend of mine drew my attention to the hospital and told me it's for military officials. There and then, I purposed in my heart to work there someday and here we are today", she said.
The driven officer mentioned that she applied for the military twice before finally getting the chance to go to the academy. According to her, she sailed through all the recruitment processes but got eliminated after the final interview.
After working for some years, the passionate Ghanaian woman applied to the University of Ghana, Legon, to acquire an EMBA in Human Resource Management and graduated in 2013. She also bagged an MPhil in Chemical Pathology in 2021.
Laurinda's hard work saw her rise through the ranks, and she eventually became the Head of Department for the Chemical Pathology Department of 37 Military Hospital, a position she still holds. In an interview, the army officer was asked what contributed most to her success story, and she attributed it to the discipline instilled in her by her strict parents at a very young age.
2. Bubune Adih, former MTN employee, Managing Partner at Misornu Technologies and NSMQ 1999 Champion, Mfantsipim School
Bubune Adih and his able team members, Jonathan Lamptey and Derick Okwan Duodo, won the NSMQ champions for Mfantsipim School in 1999 after facing Wesley Girls Senior High School at the finals.
After a successful win for his school, the brilliant young man proceeded to KNUST, where he pursued a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In an interview, he mentioned that he also applied to the University of Ghana, Legon and gained admission to read Computer Science, but he chose to pursue engineering instead.
Thankfully, Bubune got employed by MTN Ghana as a high-level support engineer right after graduating from the university. He commenced work in 2006 and started a master's program in Telecommunication Engineering at KNUST in the same year.
Source: UGC
Bubune worked with MTN Ghana for eight years after which he moved to MPay Ghana as a Lead Engineer. The driven young man worked there for some years and eventually moved on to start his own company, Misornu Technologies, in 2012. He mentioned in an interview that 'Misornu' is an Ewe word which means "let us come together". Bubune also shared the inspiration that led to the establishment of his company.
"When I was with MTN, I got the opportunity to work on a lot of interesting projects one of which was mobile money roll out. When it came out, I immediately saw the opportunities inherent to the technology so I got together with a very good friend of mine, and we decided to form a company and explore the opportunities or, better still help other companies explore the opportunities that mobile money offers", he explained.
For individuals who hope to take the entrepreneurship route at some point in their lives, Bubune encouraged them to be persistent and have the passion that what it is they want to venture into can and will work.
3. Paul Azunre, former MIT PhD student, engineer, scientist and NSMQ 2002 Champion, Opoku Ware School
Source: Instagram
The brilliant young man was a member of Opoku Ware School team who won the 2002 NSMQ. They faced Presbyterian Boys Senior High School in the finals. His team members were Vincent Michael Ampadu and Aubrey Mwinyogle.
After secondary school, Paul got the chance to travel to the US after gaining admission to Swarthmore College. There, he pursued two undergraduate degrees in Engineering and Economics. He then moved to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a master's degree in Computer Science and topped up with a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Paul has worked with several companies in the US since graduating from MIT. In 2014, he was a Lead Optimization Technology Developer at Salemander Inc. He also became a Senior Engineer in 2015 for Oracle, an American multinational computer technology corporation. Paul worked there for almost one and a half years and got engaged by a company called New Knowledge as a Lead Research Scientist. His hard work and drive saw him get promoted to Director of AI Research after almost two years.
Azunre currently runs his own company called Algorine Inc, a Research Lab spun out of MIT to advance basic Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Optimization Research, and exploration of high social impact applications.
Former Accra Academy Students Who Represented Their School At The 2016 NSMQ Graduate From Columbia University
Still, on where past NSMQ contestants currently are, two former students of Accra Academy, Joseph Duodu and Benjamin Sango, were recently celebrated by their alma mater on social media after successfully graduating from Columbia University in the US.
The post sighted by YEN.com.gh on the Instagram timeline of @bleoofficial_ revealed that Joseph and Benjamin represented Accra Academy in the 2016 National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) but were unfortunately sent home at the semi-final stage.
Joseph Duodu pursued a degree in Computer Science with Benjamin Sango reading Economics at Columbia University. The post was followed by the school congratulating the young men on their latest achievements, and were encouraged to continue excelling wherever they find themselves.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
