WILMINGTON — After four years of stellar work at Padua Academy, Osayamen Ediae is preparing to showcase her elite academic talents at Duke University in North Carolina. Not only that, she’ll be attending as a member of the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program, which provides unique opportunities those who qualify.
Before she graduated from Padua, Ediae, who attended Christ the Teacher Catholic School, discussed the process she went through in applying for the Robertson program, what she hopes to accomplish at Duke, and her thoughts about her future.
Created by Julian Robertson, the program aims to create opportunities for its scholars “to make transformational contributions to society,” according to its website. Robertson “believed in the power of people to create a better world.”
Its scholars attend either Duke or the University of North Carolina. The schools are separated by eight miles, with Duke in Durham and UNC in Chapel Hill, and, aside from academics, are perhaps best-known as one of college basketball’s fiercest rivalries. But Ediae said the participants from each school work closely with one another, although she was encouraged not to wear her North Carolina hoodie around the Duke campus.
When she applied last November, the first question on the application was to name a song that represented her life and how it has impacted her. She said she selected “He Knows My Name” by Christian artist Francesca Battistelli.
“My Christian faith has impacted me, one of the most important things in my life,” she said. “This song is about how even though you don’t need other people’s attention or approval or validation because you already have all those things from God.”
She viewed her time in high school as a journey during which she moved away from a dependency on other people’s opinions or approval toward learning “because I love to learn.”
The application process also included an interview. During hers, she focused on how she has developed a compassionate heart, “being better able to recognize the needs of people around me. If you’re so focused on what other people think of you, you’re not seeing people’s needs all around you.”
She received the phone call notifying her of her acceptance one afternoon while driving home from school. She and her parents, Jude and Miggie, understandably, were overjoyed.
“I had heavily relied on my Christian faith to believe for and receive the scholarship. My family and I had prayed together about it on a weekly basis,” she said.
At Padua, Ediae was involved with the robotics club, coding club and the Black Student Union. She enjoyed being a leader, something she said is a big part of the Robertson program.
“A really big part of the Robertson program is how you get along with other members of your cohort. We spend so much time together,” she said.
The students take an ethics class together during their second semester, she said. Over the summers, they have various events going on, all part of the program. This summer, they are headed to four different locations to do community service.
At Duke, Ediae plans to major in computer science and computational media, which will allow her to combine technology and design. During her interview with the Robertson leaders, she told them she would like to use “virtual and augmented realities” to assist children with motor and intellectual disabilities.
“Their education is not as heavily focused on. I feel that’s an innovative field, but it’s not something that’s given a lot of attention,” Ediae said. “There’s a lot of research done that they learn best when there’s a lot of technology involved in their learning.”
She said she has always been drawn to technology, and as a middle-school student at Christ the Teacher, she learned a bit about coding. She was in eighth grade when the coronavirus pandemic hit, forcing her to finish the 2019-20 school year and begin the following one with online learning.
At Padua, Ediae took as many tech classes as she could, including informational technology, graphic design and ethical hacking. She was an officer in both the robotics club and the computer club, and she was a member of the school’s Cyber Patriot team.
She followed her sister, Esosa, to Padua, but said she wasn’t sold on the school until she was in eighth grade. Once she toured the school, she was hooked.
“The people here, the energy at Padua was just different,” she said. “Everybody was so welcoming, so passionate. I just loved how passionate they were about learning.
“I really liked how Padua students enjoyed being here.”
Ediae will attend a leadership program in mid-August with the other Robertson scholars, then it’s off to Duke, which, incidentally, is where her sister Esosa attends. She said she’ll miss her family, especially her younger sisters — Zeme, Rume and Nosa. But she’s ready to get started on the next chapter.
“I love the leadership part and them growing us as leaders and how we will make our impact in the world.”
