How my entrepreneurial journey began at Stanford…
When you are good at something and you love it too, then become 'too legit to quit' 😊
I fell in love with environmental sciences as a module during my study of Zoology at first degree in Nigeria.
I then proceeded to do a Masters degree in Environmental Rehabilitation and a PhD too at Lancaster University UK.
But I have always loved the idea of advising people and getting paid for it. I wanted to set up my consulting firm and had a knack for business strategy. But the trouble is in a university set up, science students don't take business courses.
So one morning I did something most students today won't do.
I left my Department of Environmental Sciences and went to the Business School to find out if there were any opportunities.
I had spent four years in #nigeria doing a first degree in Zoology and even though I loved writing poetry and prose, I never ever visited the English and Literature Department.
I was not going to make the same mistake especially when there was no rule that I couldn't go look for exposure in other areas even if the term 'department' confined me.
Guess what? At the Business School, I learnt about a Stanford University Graduate School of Business Fellowship so I applied for it. I was not expecting to win but it was fun just to know that even though a science student, I was eligible to try.
Weeks later, I got the email confirming that I won a place at the Roundtable for Entrepreneurship Education at #Stanford. I won the only spot in the whole of the UK.
We proceeded to do a three months project which ended in a one week program at the #siliconvalley visiting #TESLA, Google and meeting their founders etc
Boom!!! my entrepreneurial and business spirit and fire was lit even if I was doing a PhD in sciences.
Read story here - https://lnkd.in/dUVZexF5
Who dare puts you in a box? Don't just think outside the box, live outside the box!!
Follow me on LinkedIn for more practical career insights - https://lnkd.in/dnWQymM
Please share😊
#strategy #founders #education #consulting #business #university #students #career #entrepreneurship #phd #people #google #writing
I got a phone call from a #Nigerian friend and there was excitement in his voice.
What happened? I asked. 'I just got admission to study in the UK in January 2022' he said. But most importantly, there is a two years post study work visa after graduation, he added.
I asked him if he knows what he needs to do when he resumes and his response was ‘not really but I have two years post study visa to figure it out’ 🙈🙈🙈
I am sure you know someone or someone who knows someone wanting to study in the UK now.
So #tuition fees is 12,000 pounds; accommodation and sustenance is 8,000 pounds; by the time you add international flights, books, shoes (I like my shoes - yours can be something else 🤣) you are hitting over 25,000 pounds for a year. This is actually for the low tuition cost UK #Universities.
Going by the Aboki (black market) rates today @760 Naira to £1, that is over 18 million Naira😳😳 - thats not small investment o!!
Funny thing is you will close your eyes and open it and 11 months will fly by when the rigorous UK independent-oriented study, with numerous essays and reports, the #british weather and the mad cold, slam into you.
If you studied in the UK please confirm this.
So if you have to go through all of these, then you should have a clear career strategy in place while you are studying so you can actually enhance your life and work during the two years post study #visa and afterwards.
Don't make the mistakes I made.
I know exactly what you should do and I will be sharing these next week Wednesday as a guest speaker to address University of Exeter UK international students.
It is going to be powerful. 😊
#universities #strategy #university #students #work #work #tuition #DrAkanSpeaks @uniofexeter
#DrAkanSpeaks
Think less about your ‘nomenclature’ and focus on your 'content-clature' 😊
Don't let your physical location limit your career progression and global position.
Have you ever heard of the Polytechnic - Federal School of Surveying (FSS) Oyo State Nigeria?
I have worked in higher education in Nigeria for over 15 years and I have never heard of them.
But I suspect you have heard of the department of surveying in a Nigerian University!!
Doesn't it just annoy you when a polytechnic is looked down on and university graduates are seen as the best thing to have happened since sliced bread?
So this week I had the privilege of delivering a session on winning international funding to academics of this amazing Polytechnic FSS and soon I sensed that their location might be limiting their progression.
Upon investigation I discovered that FSS Nigeria was founded in 1908 and even though it is a Polytechnic, it has more equipment, practical expertise, exposure and impact in surveying than any department of surveying in any Nigerian university? Yes I said it 😀
So forget your ‘nomenclature’ and focus on your 'content-clature' and this weekend refuse your physical location to be a limit to your global position. You are worth it 😊
#nigeria #funding #school #highereducation #university #career #content #flexylearn #universities
#DrAkanSpeaks
This is a mad house of acrimonious students needed help with utmost alacrity!!!
When I am angry I use big words. I am angry!!!So the last couple of weeks have been spent talking to final students of different Nigerian universities.
I met Joanne who is studying animal and #environmental biology which is just another name for #zoology and she knows she will never use it after graduation. She loves fashion. What is the use of a course not needed?
Then I met Justin who is studying accounting but really wants to study #graphicdesign and animation but has to now consider going to the #UK to even see the course but he has no funding. In this new era, that's a hot course in demand. What is the use of not having a course that is needed?
Then I met Tola who has studied agriculture for five years but she doesn't want to do anything agricultural when she graduates. Meanwhile the #Nigerian government is pushing for diversification to agriculture. What is the use of having a course needed and available but not used.
So basically the courses we have, we don't need; the courses we need we don't have and the courses we need and actually have, we don't use???
If this is not a mad house, I wonder what is? Can someone borrow me a big word to express my anger please??
Whatever you do at university, make sure you spend some time and resources developing what you love so that you have an alternative at least after graduation....
Follow me on LinkedIn to learn more https://www.linkedin.com/in/drakanimoodon
Register for ICCP Cohort 4 - see flyer for details
#universities #environmental #students #love #agriculture #graphicdesign #funding #university #accounting #fashion #animation
