Schools

UMd. Junior at the "Top of the Class"

Odunola "Ola" Ojewumi was diagnosed with a serious heart condition at age 11, but it hasn't slowed her down.

Odunola “Ola” Ojewumi, a junior at the University of Maryland, was recently named one of three mtvU "Top of the Class" award winners for her work inspiring change on campus and around the community. 

When she was 11-years-old, Ojewumi learned that she had a serious heart condition which required her to undergo heart and kidney transplants. Complications with the transplants had her back in the hospital her freshman year of college, when she was diagnosed with a rare form of transplant cancer. 

“I got really emotional after that diagnosis,” Ojewumi said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “And I started talking to a lot of people about what I really wanted to do with my life.”

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What she wanted to do with her life - and still does - is help others. Ojewumi worked with then- Prince George's county councilman Tom Dernoga to found the Sacred Heart Children's Transplant Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness for transplants and donor registration.

Part of the "Top of the Class" award is a $5,000 grant, which will help Ojewumi establish a scholarship program for Sacred Heart, as well as provide money to recent transplant recipients and their families.

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