Duane Bonifer  |   Published March 04, 2021

Finding a College ‘Where Everyone Knows You’

A familiar face helped Damilare Olusoga wind up a Trustees’ Scholar.

MONMOUTH, Ill. – Damilare Olusoga became interested in Monmouth College when he saw a familiar face.

DAMILARE OLUSOGA: ?Being at a college where you know everybody being known by them is important t... DAMILARE OLUSOGA: “Being at a college where you know everybody being known by them is important to me. If you are at a school with 5,000-6,000 students, you are basically just another student.”
The senior at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy was browsing college admission material when he saw a graduate from his school featured in a Monmouth publication.

That not only caught his attention, but it led the Chicago resident to apply to the national liberal arts college. And now Olusoga has been named one of the College’s four Trustees’ Scholars in the Monmouth Class of 2025. Trustees Scholars receive a full four-year tuition scholarship, worth more than $160,000, to the national liberal arts college. Olusoga was selected from among 165 high school seniors from 15 states who interviewed for the College’s top scholarships this year.

But Olusoga says it was more than a familiar face that got him to apply to Monmouth. He was ultimately attracted to the College because of its size and focus on strong relationships between students and professors.

“I think the thing that attracted me the most was that I’m coming from a high school that’s pretty big to Monmouth, which has fewer students,” said Olusoga, the son of Adeayo and Oludare Olusoga of Chicago. “Being at a college where you know everybody being known by them is important to me. If you are at a school with 5,000-6,000 students, you are basically just another student.”

Olusoga plans to major in biochemistry to prepare him for either pharmacy school or another profession related to the medical industry.

Monmouth also impressed him during the admission process.

“With a lot of other colleges it’s just a bunch of emails from them,” said Olusoga. “But with Monmouth I got a phone call and text message and stuff like that from them. So it was pretty cool to know they wanted to know you as a person.”

At Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, Olusoga has been a member of the National Honor Society and basketball program, served as an after-school tutor, was a member of an aviation club, and worked with children in area daycare centers.

Meet Damilare Olusoga …

 

Listen Up …

Damilare Olusoga discusses why Monmouth impressed him. Interview begins at 6:45.

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