The year 2020 will forever be remembered as the “Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” That is true for everyone including me, but it still marks a significant aspect of my life, as it also signifies the beginning of a beautiful journey with change, opportunity, and growth.
My journey in the Strategic Transitions Incubator started in November 2020. The lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic were just being lifted, tertiary students in Nigeria were battling with the Academic Staff University Union (ASUU) strike which had lingered for close to six months. It was during this time that I had the opportunity to meet Dr Yonette Thomas for the first time. I will not fail to mention that this great opportunity came through Dr Oboh Achioyamen and the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA)
We started the Cohort with four sessions which were amazing and enlightening. We were asked to define our Avatar which was a new realm of self-discovery for me. At the end of the initial program, when I was given the opportunity to go further with the Amplifying Your Signal (AYS) Incubator, I was more than excited to do so. I couldn’t wait to see the amazing opportunities it held, the growth it would bring, and the experiences I would gain.
AYS officially started on January 29th, 2021, and for the first 3 months, we had to work on Refining our Avatar, and developing our personal mission statement as well as professional statement. These activities would go on to form the foundation of our experiences going forward as well as the starting point in the journey of self-realization. These sessions were a bit challenging for me at first. I really had to pen words and thoughts to paper, I had to think deliberately and intentionally of who I really was, what I really wanted and how I wanted to achieve it. Afterwards, we were put into groups according to our interest. I was part of the ‘Health of Women and Girls’ group as this is what I’m passionate about
We also took part in a public health presentation for which we worked on a photo essay on the health of women and girls in my community. Dr Yonette made sure we were nothing but excellent. We were amazing and we were selected to present on a panel at the University of Manchester’ public health week. As a result of our success, we were made Fellows of the Urban Health 360, a feat we would not have been able to accomplish on our own.
Bob Proctor said, ” A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself and helps bring it out of you.”
Working with Dr Yonette Thomas for these past months has really been an eye opener, an opener to the abilities we have within us, an opener to the opportunities all around us, an opener to the change we can cause in our communities in our own little way. She sees so much ability in us than we have ever imagined. In her words, ‘we are a movement’. These words have propelled me more than can be said and built in me a confidence that there is so much more I can be and do.
During the Program, we worked on our LinkedIn profile which is tangible evidence of growth in our professional lives. The consciousness of how and what we write was also instilled in us, this was after some sessions with Miss Zite Ezeh, showing us that what we put out there on social media and even physically matters a lot in our professional journey.
Through this journey, I was able to have a clear and thorough sense of what exactly I want to do, and to be bold enough to put it out there. We were assigned into subject matter groups based on our interest. I joined the Health of Women and Girls and worked on projects related to it, both personally and with other members of the group. One of such was the project I organized here in my local community, the ‘Pad A Girl’ project. We reached out to about 600 schoolgirls and shared information about menstrual hygiene and distributed free sanitary pads to them.
There is an old Chinese proverb that says, ‘teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.’ The greatest asset that I received from my time in Amplifying Your Signal Incubator is self-confidence. I believe with enough self-confidence; you can conquer anything and everything; you can accomplish all you set your mind to accomplish. This is going to be the fuel that will drive every action I make from here onward.
Finally, the connection that I have built with other members of the Cohort where we now see ourselves as a family, a team and a movement is one that is going to last for a very long time. I cannot wait to see the great accomplishment we each achieve from this movement we will be making in the nearest future