Cal State East Bay Alumna Receives Premier Graduate School Fellowship
Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo
- April 27, 2015
California State East Bay alumna Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, now a student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has been selected as one of 30 recipients of the 2015 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans is considered the premier graduate school fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants. Ogbu-Nwobodo, selected from a pool of 1,200 applicants, will receive a $90,000 award to help her pay for graduate school. The “fellows” are selected based on their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, or their specific academic field, which includes the sciences, music, medicine, law and education.
Nigerian-born Ogbu-Nwobodo was brought to Oakland, Calif., by relatives when she was 11 and lived as an undocumented citizen for more than 12 years. She has always maintained a strong academic focus, and graduated high school as class valedictorian at just 15-years-old. She earned a bachelor’s degree from CSUEB in biological sciences with an emphasis in physiology and a minor in chemistry in 2007 before the age of 20.
After college, Ogbu-Nwobodo volunteered at Highland General Hospital, a safety-net hospital that primarily serves Oakland’s uninsured patients, where she also founded the Operating Room Experiences (OREX), a pre-medical surgical observation program in 2008. It is one of a handful of programs in the U.S. that allows extensive access to undergraduates. More than 30 students have matriculated from the program into medical and other graduate health education programs. OREX serves as a model for other teaching hospitals.
“I feel so humbled by this amazing honor,” Ogbu-Nwobodo said. “I look back on my years at CSUEB and it almost makes me want to cry when I think of the many people who believed in me and championed my aspirations. I love this school, and it truly is an honor to represent them on a national stage.
“No matter how far I go, I will never forget the kindness of the many people who I had the privilege of meeting while a CSUEB student,” she continued.
As a medical student Ogbu-Nwobodo serves as co-director of the Imani Clinic, a student-run facility that provides services to the medically disenfranchised in Sacramento. She is the co-president of the Student National Medical Association and the president and founder of the UC Davis Neurosurgery Student Interest Group.
Ogbu-Nwobodo plans to specialize in neurosurgery. After medical school, she would like to improve health care by bringing specialty medical services to low-income communities.
This year’s fellows join a select community of former recipients, including U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, leading Ebola researcher Pardis Sabeti, Oscar health insurance cofounder Kevin Nazemi, and more than 500 other New American leaders.
About The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
Paul and Daisy Soros, Hungarian immigrants and American philanthropists, established their fellowship program in 1997 as a way to give back to the country that afforded them and their children “great opportunities.” The Soros also wanted Americans to be aware of the extensive and diverse contributions “New Americans” make to the quality of life in the U.S. The fellowship supports the graduate educations of 30 “New Americans” (permanent residents or naturalized citizens if born abroad; otherwise children of naturalized citizen parents) each year. Each fellow receives tuition and living expenses up to $90,000 over two academic years. Fellows can study in any degree-granting program in any field at any university in the U.S.