USU Math Grad Student Leads Successful Guinness World Record Attempt

It’s not unusual for college students to pull all-nighters as they scramble to complete essays and projects, or cram for exams. But sitting in a classroom with a teacher lecturing for more than an hour and a half is quite rare, as well as an achievement in attentive perseverance.

Yet Utah State University graduate student Emmanuel Onyegu managed to teach a group of Aggies a continuous mathematics lesson for more than 40 hours, achieving a new Guinness World Record. From eight in the morning on Nov. 21 through Nov. 23, Onyegu demonstrated, explained, cajoled, queried, joked with and entertained some 30 students with interactive math problems.

“I’ve always loved learning and teaching mathematics,” says Onyegu, a doctoral student in mathematics education in USU’s School of Teacher Education and Leadership, who taught math at the elementary, secondary and college levels for more than six years in his native Nigeria. “What I’ve realized is many people find mathematics uninteresting or have math phobia because they lack rational and conceptual understanding of mathematics at the basic level.”

The opportunity to attempt teaching mathematics in a nonstop marathon appealed to Onyegu, because it would be a way to teach math as a continuous, uninterrupted journey.

“I wanted to teach people basic mathematics from scratch,” he says. “I don’t really care about setting records. I care about impact. But the challenge of setting a record gave me the opportunity to develop a comprehensive lesson and gather students to help me develop an interactive curriculum I can use in online, accessible lessons.”

Interaction, Onyegu says, is key to his teaching approach.

“I don’t just impart knowledge; I ask students what they want to learn and how they want to do it,” he says. “I believe in the theory of embodied cognition, in which students’ cognitive processes are shaped by hands-on, interactive learning.”

Keeping participants engaged in learning during the record attempt also helped the students stay awake, alert and motivated.

“Yes, we were all exhausted, but we were having fun, too,” Onyegu says. “I was motivated and excited about the lesson — not so much setting a record — and it was a group effort.”

The grad student’s lesson preparations and insights gained from the marathon will fuel content for a website he’s developing to support his online academy called Emmanuel Math Academy, which has a presence across several social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, each of which has hundreds of followers.

“My goal is to make these lessons available worldwide and to offer instruction in multiple languages,” Onyegu says. “I believe everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics.”

The Aggie scholar first applied to Guinness World Records to attempt an official record in April 2025. After the organization granted acceptance, Onyegu set to work developing a proposal to follow the organization’s recording-setting guidelines. The organization, which has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, is currently reviewing Onyegu’s documentation for the USU event, and will officially recognize the USU attempt at a later date.

Incidentally, the previous record of 31 hours, 42 minutes and 54 seconds, was set by Oneygu’s countryman Sanusi Kazeem in Ilorin, Nigeria, in April 2025.

“I’m very grateful for USU’s support with this effort,” Onyegu says. “My faculty committee, including Dr. Michelle Frierson, Dr. Jessica Shumway, Dr. Tye Campbell, Dr. Katherine Vela, Dr. Mario Suarez and Dr. Steven Camicia were are instrumental. I also want to thank the USU Student Association, along with the student councils from CEHA and ArtSci, and the USU Nigerian Students Association, for cheering us on and providing food and refreshments to keep the participants going.”

He says he was touched by the love shown on campus and the love expressed during the online event by family and friends back in Nigeria.

“My parents tuned in, and that really meant a lot to me,” Onyegu says.