the yes! effect - can one word change the world? yes!

I am an educator and an academician today because it literally took a village to raise me and to make me the person I have become. First, when my parents died, I was about 8 years old. I thought I had no future left. But it took my 5th grade teacher (Retired Colonel E. Bassey of the Nigerian Army) to believe in me because he saw the unlimited potential I possessed. He spoke to the people of my village and Uruan community in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria to raise some money to pay for my education through high school.

Without a doubt, Colonel Bassey said, “Yes” to me and that was an affirmation of my potential to succeed in life. His belief in me was the spark that ignited the internal motivation within me. From my fifth grade forward, I started to nurture the hope that I will be successful in life. Education became my guiding light in spite of the challenges I faced as an orphan.

After completing my high school education, I went to work briefly as an office assistant for the Federal Department of Labor in Lagos, Nigeria. The early foundation that I acquired in K-12 education became an impetus for me to pursue higher education. In 1979, I took leave of my employment to pursue further studies. Upon completion of my BA and MA degrees in the United States, I took on teaching assignments in K-12. My desire to attain my doctorate degree stemmed from the early foundation and encouragement that I received from the people who said “Yes” to me and prodded and nudged me along the path to success. Now, I can say with conviction that the word “Yes” means vision, motivation, empowerment, and success. Above all, “Yes” means helping the less fortunate people in our global society.

My achievement will continue to be meaningful whenever I can extend the opportunity to those in need and to help them achieve their life goals. Through the help of many other people like my fifth grade Teacher, Colonel E. Bassey, for whom my success depended, therefore, as an ambassador and an educator, I hope I have and will continue to touch the future one student at a time. I will always count my blessings by how much I will continue to inspire others. I hope Western Union will extend that opportunity to Uruan Development Association, (UDA) USA, Inc., and a nonprofit organization in which I serve as the Secretary General so that we can award more scholarships to students in Uruan community in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.

Biography

Dr. Idio is the current General Secretary of Uruan Development Association (UDA, USA, Inc.) a nonprofit organization with the mission to serve as an advocacy group for the Uruan citizens and to provide technical and financial assistance to supplement local and governmental efforts to promote community development such as road building, schools, hospitals and other vital public infrastructures and participate in economic ventures for the cause of improving the quality of life of the citizens of Uruan. UDA can use an award from Western Union to improve the quality of life of the people of Uruan community. He is an adjunct faculty at NVCC and a veteran teacher at Pennington School, PWCS, and Manassas, Virginia. He is the Author of two books titled: Effective School Leadership (ISBN: 9781418476106) and How to Eliminate Achievement Gap Without Leaving Any Child Behind (Teacher's Edition - ISBN978-1-4259-7403-9 and Student's Edition -ISBN: 978-1-4259-9573-7); and Award Winning Poetries: "Bravo To NASSA" and "Before My Journey Ends"