OB STUDENT GRADUATES FROM WEST POINT

School received $1,000 for the “Planetarium”. Colleen Kenny, Mandy Dyas and Adriana Fernandez from Grissom School received $1,000 for “One School, One Book”. Lynda Napso and Rebecca Rienz from Shepard School received $505.61 for “Culture Club”. Tim O’Neil from Old Bridge High School received $799 for “Photography Equipment”. Kristen Adames from Old Bridge High School received $ 593.39 for “Life Town”. Jodi Rosenblum from Carpenter School received $350 for “Science Experiments”. The OBEF awarded $5,000 in total. Congratulations to all of our grant recipients! We ask for your continued support of the OBEF so that we can continue to award grants in the future. Please mark your calendars for the following OBEF events – a community concert on Lombardi field featuring the band Revolver on October 7 and a Casino Knight at Palms Plaza on October 19. The OBEF will be selling the district’s 2023-2024 theme shirts starting in August so please keep an eye open for more information on this fundraiser!

On May 27th, 2023, Ijeoma Akubueze will be one of the newest Second Lieutenants (2LT) of the U.S. Army upon her graduation and commissioning from the United States Military Academy at West Point. An Old Bridge girl born and raised, Ijeoma is the daughter of Cornelius and Angela Akubueze. Ijeoma attended Saint Thomas the Apostle School in Old Bridge for grades K-8, then attended Saint John Vianney High School in Holmdel. In high school, Ijeoma exhibited qualities of a student-athlete, playing on the varsity volleyball and track teams while taking enough dual enrollment courses to earn her Associates Degree in Social Sciences from Brookdale Community College. Outside of school, Ijeoma also volunteered in many ways, such as an altar server for her Saint Thomas Parish, and studied taekwondo for over nine years. At West Point, Ijeoma continued her servitude and extracurricular pursuits by becoming a catechism instructor and singing in the Catholic Church Choir and West Point Glee Club. Athletically, Ijeoma briefly played on the Women’s Rugby Team and most recently competed on her cadet company’s submission grappling team, for which she was also a coach. As a developing leader, Ijeoma has taken on several major leadership roles during her time at West Point, with her most significant role being the Regimental Adjutant General for the Class of 2026’s Cadet Basic Training. Upon graduation, Ijeoma will commission as an Armor Officer and begin follow-on training at the U.S. Army Amor School in Fort Benning, Georgia. Ijeoma owes much of her success to her parents Cornelius and Angela, who are both Nigerian immigrants and long-term residents of Old Bridge. Cornelius is a Systems Engineer and a contractor at the Department of Defense, and Angela is a Nurse Practitioner specializing in pulmonary, geriatrics and Internal Medicine. Please join Cornelius and Angela in congratulating and praying for Ijeoma’ s successful graduation, commissioning, and inspiration to other young girls that may follow.