Ogundayo family establishes scholarships
Members of the Ogundayo family have made contributions to Pitt-Bradford for two student scholarships.
Members of the Ogundayo family have made contributions to Pitt-Bradford for two student scholarships.
Dr. BioDun Ogundayo, associate professor of French and comparative literature, has established an annual scholarship in memory of his father, James Akande Ogundayo.
A second scholarship was created by Ogundayo's children, Tomi Ogundayo, a 2015 alumna, and Segun Ogundayo, a pre-medicine student at the University of Pittsburgh's campus in Pittsburgh, in memory of their mother, Christiana Ogundayo, who died of breast cancer a year ago - Oct. 8, 2015.
“The children wanted to do something to honor their mother,” BioDun Ogundayo said. The Christiana Ogundayo Scholarship will be awarded this year to a student majoring in engineering, mathematics, science or computer information systems and technology.
Christiana Ogundayo was born in Nigeria and had lived in the United States for many years, studying at Long Island University Southampton and the State University of New York at Buffalo. A statistician, she worked as a computer and logistics specialist for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The student receiving the Christiana Ogundayo Scholarship is Laura McKibbin, computer information systems and technology major from Warren.
Ogundayo's scholarship in memory of his father will be an annual scholarship for a student majoring in broadcast communications, writing, public relations or interdisciplinary arts. Ogundayo chose to honor his father with the scholarship because of how he promoted excellence and leadership as head of the Ogundayo clan in the family's native Nigeria.
James Ogundayo, his son said, taught his 12 children, “To do the right thing and do it over and over.” The elder Ogundayo died in 1998.
Troi Williams, a public relations major from Bala Cynwyd, is the first recipient of the James Akande Ogundayo Scholarship.
To find out more about starting a scholarship at Pitt-Bradford, contact Jill Ballard, executive director of Institutional Advancement at 814-362-5091 or jballard@pitt.edu.