Agodi Onyeador was an incredible light in this world. A reliable, young lady with a calming and jovial presence, who held immense promise as an academic and future physician. Her accomplishments in her lifetime and contributions towards her family, friends, and future cannot be understated, and her unrelenting determination and her curiosity about the world around her were some of her most admirable characteristics. Here is her story.

Agodi Ezinne Onyeador was born on 29 May 2000 at the Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, California, USA to Mazi Emmanuel Osita Onyeador and Adamazi Ndidi Umozurike of Amuvi, Arochukwu in Abia State, Nigeria.

Agodi started her pre-school education at the Balboa Child Care Centre in El Cerrito, California. She proceeded to the St. John the Baptist School, El Cerrito for her elementary School and middle school education. During her elementary, and middle school education, Agodi was on honor roll and received several excellence awards.

Agodi was a student at the Oakland Technical High School from 2014 – 2018. She was a consulting representative for Supporting People of Color in 2015 and also the President of the Black Students Union. She was a summer math and science honors academy scholar for the Level Playing Field Institute from 2015 to 2017 and was a mentee at the Intel Computer Science Academy from 2016 to 2017.

During her middle and high school days, Agodi played competitive volleyball and basketball and received many awards for her achievements. Agodi enjoyed doing things like playing PlayStation with her friends, watching international movies, tv shows and anime, watching live musical theater and listening to music (she was a huge Nicki Minaj fan). She also learned to play the clarinet for 3 years in middle school, and was an altar server at her church as well.

In 2018, Agodi was a SMASH scholar at University of California, Berkeley since she was 14 years old. And in the summer she completed high school, she was selected to work in the exclusive Stanford University Canary Center lab where she worked in cancer early detection. In this, she assisted with fundamental discovery and translation of novel early cancer detection and prognostication strategies. Agodi described her work as: "my career research interests at the Canary Center at Stanford consists of working on the computational part of non-small cancer lung cells. I have gained more knowledge about the different types of cancers and how they are formed. Moreover, I have learned about, the R programming language and how it can be used to make data frames to identify the different cancers and how much proteins are in the specific type of cancers."

In late 2018, the Governor of California, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed 15 technology and education experts to the California Computer Science Strategic Implementation Advisory Panel created by Assembly Bill 99 and charged with making recommendations on the implementation of K-12 Computer science standards in California. At only 17years old, Agodi was the youngest of the 15-member panel. The panel's recommendations went to the Legislature, California Department of Education and State Board of Education and the Department of Education turned those recommendations into a specific implementation plan, which the State Board of Education voted on.

Agodi transferred to UC Berkeley in Fall 2021. She was a Pre-Med Student majoring in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked at the UC Berkeley Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center as the events coordinator and was a former tutor for the Community College Students at Laney College in Oakland. Agodi came to campus way ahead of her peers, having known the immense sacrifices, dedication, and application it took to achieve her dreams of becoming a physician, and this was something that was recognized by friends and peers alike, and that will live on as her legacy.

Let us not only remember her only for educational achievement, but also her personability, warm spirit, and caring nature. As someone who had a deep love for her family and those around her, she found inspiration and happiness not only from her own success but from watching the accomplishments and experiences of those of whom she loved.

Amongst her friends, she was known to be hardworking, kind, and considerate with her constantly checking in on her friends. She was a very curious person and never afraid to ask questions, especially when seeking advice. She was ambitious and always wanted to strive for greatness. She was extremely passionate as well, especially in terms of things she was very interested in. Agodi was also known to be very optimistic. One of her friends would credit her as their reason for not giving up when they wanted to in university classes.

Agodi was a dreamer; she dreamed of making an impact in health, she dreamed of a better society, she dreamed bigger and greater things for herself along every step of way—and she was someone who not only was inspired, but inspired others through her willingness to take uncharted roads, her willingness to learn and grow, and her willingness to always strive to be a better version of herself. She dared to try new things and take on challenges in both her academic and personal life, she  loved to learn from others and share her cultural heritage, and reach feats underheard of by many her age.

Some of Agodi's final conversations consisted of the dreams she wanted to accomplish in relation to travel. She had intended to go to London to celebrate her 22nd birthday on May 29 and wanted to take the train to Paris to explore cities she had never seen before. She had just decided she wanted to move to Thailand the summer she graduated with her Public Health degree to do a public health internship and live abroad. She not only had planned to go to London and Paris with her sister, but San Diego with her college friends and dreamed of visiting the likes of Houston, New York, Barcelona and Nigeria as well. Agodi had always set her heart on doing medical school in the South or on the East Coast—it was a dream of hers to live somewhere new. Agodi strived towards her dream to become a medical doctor, but she had a particular interest towards helping people with psychological illness, and helping the Black and LGBTQ+ community which she always found as important as well.

Agodi completed her final exams a day before she departed this life on Wednesday, 11 May 2022 to join the saints triumphant in Heaven. It was a rather short but very impactful 21 years sojourn on this earth, but Agodi fulfills the scripture: 2 Timothy 4:7-8; "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing".

Agodi was a powerful individual whose purpose was to share her knowledge, her aspirations, and her presence with others, and one cannot be more thankful to have crossed paths with her in this life.

She was beautiful inside and out, and her confidence could fill a room, and she served as an example that one can do anything in this life if they put their mind to it, that resilience and perseverance come with reward, and that there is so much that can be learned from others.

Agodi is a presence, that will be sorrowfully missed, but never ever forgotten, and her legacy will carry forward as those around her will aspire to "live like Agodi", speaking with conviction, demonstrating drive, accomplishing the unthinkable, and continuing to be open-minded possibilities and beauties that life has in store.

Agodi is survived, loved and missed by her parents: Osita and Ndidi, siblings: Kachi, Chimere and Chido, grandmothers, several aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and colleagues who will forever hold her dear memory in their hearts

Visitation will be held on Friday, June 10, 2022, from 9:00am to 11:00am at the Pittsburg Funeral Chapel. Funeral liturgy will follow at 11:30am at Church of the Good Shepherd. Committal services following at Memory Gardens Cemetery 2011 Arnold Industrial Way, Concord, Ca 94520.