From a humble beginning in a small village in the Volta Region, a 28-year-old man has against all odds, etched his name in the country’s academic books as one of the great academics.

Sylvester Adreban who scored aggregate 26 in his Basic Education Certificate Examination a decade ago, graduated as the overall best student at the University of Cape Coast this year with an incredible cumulative grade point average of 4.0

“Initially, I never knew I could do that. I had the motivation from my first two semester results when it came and I realized they were all ‘A’s, then I said to myself ‘Sly you can do this,” he told the UCC Times.

Adreban was among the hundreds of students who graduated Friday at the 48th Congregation of the University of Cape Coast College of Distance Education June this year.

He was adjudged the overall best student of his graduating class [2014/2015 academic year] as well as the best student in marketing. He now holds BSc. Marketing certificate.Adreban started his basic education at Nyambong L/A primary in the Nkwanta South District in the Volta region and completed in 2003 and continued to Nkwanta Secondary School the same year.

Unfortunately, he had a poor aggregate 26, something he blamed on lack of teaching and learning materials at the Junior High school.

The story of Adreban is no different from most Ghanaian children in rural Ghana who are unable to have access to quality education due to a number of factors including poor financial background of their parents.

For him, he lost his father at a very young age. Due to financial constraint, his elder brother dropped out of school so he continued his education.

With determination, sacrifices and perseverance, he gained admission to do a three-year Bsc Marketing progamme at the University of Cape Coast as a distant student, something that afforded him the opportunity to work alongside school.

Adreban told the UCC Times the feat he has achieved today did not come easy, nothing, “there were challenges”. According to him, “the first time I wore a bathroom slipper was when I moved from primary to JHS”.

Over the years, he said, his guiding principle has been the words of the American poet and educator, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which states: “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night”.

He said his “dream is to aspire higher to become a PhD holder and that motivates me to go the extra mile. Socially, what keeps me awake is to ensure that the village which suffered because of me is properly taken care of.”

On his graduation day, he challenged his colleagues not to see themselves as failures, rather exhibit determination and hard work.

“The fact that you are not the best today does not mean you can never be the best,” he told them.

By 3news.com|UCC Times|Ghana