NEWS & EVENTS

Chancellor, biology and math students to be honored as 2010 Role Models

September 9, 2010

Dr. Ukpolo will be honored as a 2010 Role Model by Minority Access, Inc. He will be recognized at the organization’s Eleventh National Role Model Conference Awards Banquet on September 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Having served as Chancellor of SUNO since January of 2006, Ukpolo was recommended by two SUNO faculty members—Dr. Joe Omojola and Dr. Murty Kambhampati.  Kambhampati was honored with the National Role Model Faculty Award in September of 2008.  Omojola also received the National Role Model Faculty Award in September of 2006, and he is a recipient of the 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the National Science Foundation.

“In nominating Dr. Ukpolo for this prestigious award, we reflected on his leadership, innovation, and accomplishments in a post-Katrina New Orleans environment,” says Omojola.  “Through hard work, Dr Ukpolo has been able to increase student enrollment and recruit productive faculty members. Due to his commitment to fundraising, infrastructure building and capital development, he has successfully established student housing which will be instrumental in improving SUNO's academic quality for years to come.”

In addition to Dr. Ukpolo, two SUNO students will also be honored with a student's role model award for their outstanding academic, research accomplishments, and departmental service.  The students are Dorcas Falodun, a senior Biology major and Brandi Adams, a Mathematics senior.  Both students are NSF funded-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) scholars and have presented in multiple national conferences and won awards for their presentations. Falodun and Adams were nominated by Kambhampati and Omojola respectively.

Minority Access, Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit educational organization that supports individuals, academic institutions, federal, state, and local government agencies and various corporations to diversify campuses and work sites by improving the recruitment, retention and enhancement of minorities. The organization is based in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Ukpolo to receive 2010 Quintessence Award

August 23, 2010

 

Chancellor Ukpolo will receive the 2010 Quintessence Award from the African Writers Endowment, Inc.  Having led SUNO since January of 2006, Ukpolo will receive the award on Saturday, August 28, 2010, at the Marriot Trenton Hotel in Trenton, New Jersey.  An accomplished and extensively published professor of Economics, Ukpolo had previously served the Southern University System as Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs. 

 

The Quintessence Award is given each year as part of “Quintessence Ball: A Celebration of African People in World History”.  The award is presented to at least one continental African leader and at least one African American leader "for distinguished accomplishments in the person's field of endeavor, and for outstanding contributions to the history and heritage of African people."  The Quintessence Ball brings together African people from Africa, North America, and the Caribbean.  Ukpolo will be honored along with Ambassador Joy Uche Ogwu, the Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and the Honorable Tony Mack, Mayor of the City of Trenton, New Jersey.

 

A native of Nigeria, Ukpolo started work in America as a dish washer and taxi driver to put himself through school.  He is a graduate of the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., and received his Master of Arts and Doctorate of Philosophy from The American University, Washington, D.C.  Ukpolo serves as a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Committee on Economic and Workforce Development. 

 

Ukpolo is being honored because of his efforts in leading the recovery of SUNO.  In 2006, the Tall Drums television team did a documentary on Dr. Ukoplo and the recovery efforts at SUNO.