04/05/2026
Cynthia Damboyi was our Head Girl in 2016, she graduated as the Overall Best Student in Academics.
Today she replicates the same gesture at the University of Abuja as the Overall Best Graduating Student with a CGPA of 4.6/5.0.
Congratulations Cynthia Damboyi, we are proud of you.
Proudly St. Anne's.
When Cynthia Damboyi arrived at the University of Abuja to study medicine in 2017 her coursemates had already settled in. And she had just one month before her first semester examination.
It had not been her plan to study Veterinary Medicine. She had applied for MBBS so as to work as a human doctor. But the University had other ideas. Rather than walk away from Vet Medicine she accepted the placement, packed her bags, and arrived on a campus that had moved on without her.
"It was a lot of work," she says simply. "Too much pressure."
The young Damboyi found her way to the library. She attended every tutorial she could find. She read, read and read. Then she caught up.
She had come, after all, with something her father had given her before she left home: good training, standards, hard work. Her father, Mr James Damboyi had watched his daughter leave secondary school as the best graduating student and his instruction was plain: continue in that path of excellence, never forget your home training, your resolve.
But there was one semester that tested that decision. A 'C' grade in one course. A CGPA of 4.6. For a student aiming at the top, it stung. "I felt bad," she says. Then she told herself, "it is what it is."
She moved on.
Today, Damboyi is the University's overall best graduating student for 2022/2023 academic session. A Veterinary doctor, one of six children, with interests that cut across research writing, graphic design, music and sports.
She speaks of becoming a professor, of championing global platforms, of a shelf full of publications and helping to change the world for the best.
Congratulations!
