“My name is Ademorin Maureen Ajepe, a 27 years old final year student of the Department of Physiology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. Although I’m studying physiology in school, I’ve always had a passion for tech and even took up a job as a Junior UI/UX Designer.
While I’m proud to be a Nigerian, life in Africa, Nigeria precisely, hasn’t been easy especially in the health sector, educational sector, security, actually too many sectors to mention. But I have decided as an individual to keep rising up to do my part to make this country great, and one of the ways I want to do it is through tech. I got introduced to Figma in 2018 but in 2019 I had no Laptop until March 2020. I really wanted a career path in UI/UX but it wasn’t easy self-learning. At first learning on my own was interesting, because I enjoyed being alone, but it got to a point where I was scared, depressed, lacked motivation, no mentor, no friends, no push, no task, no data for months, no power, no progress.
The challenges made me feel like I’m just stagnant. I couldn’t tell if I was improving or regressing. I took a break on design and after a while I realized I was gradually losing my drive. It was in the midst of this funk that I was scrolling through one of the telegram groups I was in and I saw the information about the I4G StudentBuilds study group and the mentorship program as well. I quickly enrolled.. It came at the right time for me, it felt like an answered prayer for me and I would forever be grateful. Through this program, I got to challenge and push myself, connect with amazing folks on the platform. I was super empowered, especially when it came to sharing my design. I always felt this imposter syndrome thing, but during the program, I was able to overcome it. I felt very much empowered to advocate for myself.
My capstone project was extremely challenging. I was short on cash, so I had to sleep inside the school campus to access the school Wi-Fi and I also had to shuffle between my school project and the capstone project, which wasn’t easy but with determination and perseverance, I was able to successfully complete both.
What I currently tell the world is this – If you want to be empowered, equipped with the right skill and tools in tech, join Ingressive for Good. The only thing that is required of you is to be intentional, consistent, and be persistent. They never asked me for one naira, but they gave me everything. It will get tough at a point, you may feel like giving up or changing your career path, but if truly that is what you want, you will come out successful with increased capacity to earn more. Just trust the process. Thank you I4G.”