Isokpunwu, Muranaka, Ogom Honored at Rotary Banquet

Patrick Isokpunwu (Benin City, Nigeria), Reiko Muranaka (Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, Japan), and Christopher Ogom (Marsabit, Kenya) were recognized as Rotary Foundation Global Grant Scholars at the Rotary District 6150 Foundation Banquet at the Clinton Presidential Center on Thursday evening.

Each student is the recipient of a scholarship that can be used to cover academic, personal, and travel costs associated with the Clinton School’s Master of Public Service degree program.

Several Clinton School graduates who are past recipients of the scholarship were in attendance on Thursday, including Darlynton Adegor (Delta, Nigeria), John Mensah (Accra, Ghana), Izehi Oriaghan (Lagos, Nigeria), and Vinay Raj (Chennai, India).

Other previous recipients of the scholarship include Arjola Limani (Tirana, Albania) and Demas Soliman (Alexandria, Egypt).

Since the program started in 2015, nearly $400,000 in scholarships have been awarded to Clinton School students. The grant sponsor is Rotary District 6150 which includes parts of central and northeast Arkansas, and District Governor Nancy Leonhardt in cooperation with 12 Rotary Districts in the United States.

“We are most grateful to Rotary for again awarding these prestigious scholarships to these outstanding Clinton School students,” said Clinton School Dean James L. “Skip” Rutherford III. “We also very much appreciate the work of Dr. Bob Warner of Jonesboro and others who are strong advocates of higher education.”

A first-year student at the Clinton School, Isokpunwu graduated from Imo State University with a degree in management and earned his master’s degree in public sector management from National Open University of Nigeria. Currently, Isokpunwu is part of a team of Clinton School students assessing the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub’s membership strategy while studying membership drives of similar organizations across the country.

Muranaka, a second-year student, is a graduate of Arkansas Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in economics and finance. In the summer of 2019, she planned, developed, and implemented a training program and materials for business coaches (local business owners) enrolled in the business incubator program at Wesley College in Mwanza, Tanzania. During her first year at the Clinton School, Muranaka was part of a team that worked with the Argenta Downtown Council in North Little Rock to conduct research and supply recommendations informing the rebirth of the Argenta Farmers Market.

Ogom, a second-year student, is a graduate of Catholic University of Eastern Africa with a degree in commerce and finance. For his International Public Service Project, Ogom traveled to Marsabit, Kenya, to assist the County Government of Marsabit in addressing concerns on secure land tenureship among indigenous communities of Marsabit County. He worked on a team that assisted the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in researching opportunities to repurpose two large mobile trailers previously used in energy-efficiency education during his first year in Little Rock.

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