Alumni Impact Story — Meet Obasanjo
Joining Teach For Nigeria Fellowship in July 2018 changed my career trajectory from being a regular teacher to a change agent impacting the education sector positively
Obasanjo Fajemirokun is the Founder and Executive Director of Brace-up The Young, an Alumnus of Teach for Nigeria and presently serves as a Language Support Coordinator at T4 Education - a global organization committed to providing engaging tools, initiatives and events for educators and schools. As a social entrepreneur, Obasanjo’s interest spans through quality education advocacy, project management, and social development. He is a graduate of Business Administration and Management from Adekunle Ajasin University.
In this piece, he recounts his experience as a Teach For Nigeria Fellow and how the skills gained from the Teach For Nigeria Fellowship equipped him for his present job role.
The Teach For Nigeria’s fellowship program is more than just a fellowship. It is a place for forging leaders who will go on to impact Nigeria positively.
My passion for influencing the Education sector inspired me to apply for the Teach For Nigeria Fellowship in 2018. Prior to my application, I was a Secondary School teacher in a private school in Ibadan, preparing my students for WAEC/NECO exams. The call for the application was inspiring and mission-driven. I knew it was a fellowship I would love to belong to.
Joining Teach For Nigeria as a Fellow in July 2018 changed my career trajectory from being a regular teacher to a change agent impacting the education sector positively. I acquired skills such as project management, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, innovation, fundraising and storytelling skills during my two-year Fellowship. Mastering these skills enabled me to work better and improve the students’ learning outcomes in my classroom. This also afforded me various growth opportunities including joining international fellowships such as YALI Regional Leadership Centre — West Africa (2020), TheirWorld Global Youth Ambassador (2020), and Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (2021), starting a nonprofit organization — Brace-up The Young and other experiences and skills gained during my two-year fellowship enabled me to perform well as a T4 Education UK staff member where I lead the language support team with members globally.
During my fellowship year, I embarked on various educational projects like class facelifts, book drives, and sports projects. The class facelift project of St. Paul School 1, Owode-Idiroko, Ogun State was inspired by the challenge I experienced in an attempt to think critically due to the black walls that surrounded my primary 3 class of 76 champions. The class was black and dark, and I wondered how my learners could think in that classroom. Weeks later, I made a post on Facebook about my classroom and how I would love to paint it but did not have the funds to embark on such project. My friends on Facebook saw the message, and within a week, I had the needed funds to carry out a facelift project for my classroom. This was also supported by my head teacher, Mr. Kalejaiye.
The Teach For Nigeria Fellowship program is more than just a Fellowship. It is a place to develop leaders who will impact Nigeria positively. To become this leader, I recommend you do the following during the Fellowship, which can be translated into workplace-relevant skills.
- Be audacious and try the hard things: Learn new skills by doing new things and taking up new challenges.
- Be solution-oriented; There will always be problems. Rather than complaining, think through it and develop solutions to solve them.
- Network: No one is an island of knowledge. Meet new people and share stories about your passion and work.
- Tell your stories: There is no better way to learn storytelling than by continuously telling your story.
- Apply for fellowships and programs that improve you: Always be focused on improving the lives and learning outcomes of your students.
- Respect structures and systems you meet on the ground: If you feel they are not positive, be diplomatic about changing them. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
- Respect and build relationships with your co-teacher, management and education authority; You alone can not change the world, you need everyone to make a change.
- Always collect data from your students: this will help you improve them and share better impact stories.
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