Among the sectors which need urgent and key positive changes in Nigeria is her educational sector. Its a generally accepted fact that education is key in the making of tomorrow's leaders.
Mr Ademola Adedeji, Founder of tReE Funds Initiative and Convener of Future Leaders Summit (FLS) shared in an interview with Attain, his vision to promote education and professionalism in Nigeria.
Please kindly tell us about yourself?
I am Ademola Adedeji, a graduate of Faculty of Agriculture of the prestigious University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and a second degree holder in Agricultural Economics from the Nigerian premier University, University of Ibadan. I am also a writer, playwright, actor, stage drama director, teacher, public speaker, certified John Maxwell’s EQUIP Leadership trainer, independent eBook publisher, the founder of De Valeuplus Creations and the Redefined Education Endowment Foundation (a.k.a. tReE Funds), the Convener of tReE Funds’ Future Leaders Summit (FLS) for secondary school students and the Live Mentoring Session (LivMentS) for students of higher institution; and students’ Affairs Officer at Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria.
Tell us about your Vision?
The Redefined Education Endowment Foundation (tReE Funds) is a non-profit organization that promotes education and professionalism. It aims at helping the young Nigerians align their academic and eventual career pursuit with their natural ability/talent; promoting the social relevance of education beyond the issuance of and carrying of certificate; and providing young Nigerians with role model of credible character for the realisation of their academic and professional dreams. tReE Funds supports education through mentoring and creative social media advocacy on the importance of education in national development.
When and how was it birthed?
The concept of tReE Funds was birthed in August, 2014 following an experience at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office in Lagos. I went there for the compulsory TB test, which was part of the requirements to apply for Students’ Visa to study in the UK. In the year 2014, I had a 50% Vice-Chancellor’s scholarship for Nigerians to study Development Economics in the University of Sussex, UK. During my interaction with most students, I met at the IOM office, travelling to the UK, whether on Nigerian government scholarship, foreign scholarship or sponsored by parents, I noticed that very few had the plan of returning to Nigeria after their studies, let alone applying their knowledge to the development of the Nigerian nation. This made me sad, so I conceived the idea of pulling young Nigerians studying abroad together, starting from University of Sussex and then extending it to other Universities in the UK, Europe and other continents.
The plan was to network, create a platform to discuss issues of how we could use our education to contribute to national development and creatively find ways of pulling some of them back to Nigeria. It was also meant to provide mentoring for Nigerians seeking to study abroad so as to dispel the wrong thoughts of neglecting Nigeria, and as well generate endowment funds to support education in Nigeria.
What the endowment fund was meant to do is create an alternative source of scholarship, but more importantly to sponsor curriculum redesigning, such that we can reduce the number of young Nigerians going abroad to study and as well attract foreign students to come to Nigeria. I tagged it the Redefined Education Endowment (tReE) Funds and I intended to launch it in the UK.
However, I could not raise the remaining 50% required for my education in the UK, despite the fact that I deferred my admission till the following year (2015) and I was not ready to travel using non-genuine claims. I sent the document of tReE Funds to some of my friends, including senior friends in the academics and corporate world, to critique and they all spoke well of the concept. Early in 2016, while changing jobs, during the waiting period I remembered tReE Funds concept, then I started with an educative Inspirational Outreach to secondary school known as Stand Out. On Stand Out, we talk to students about the importance of vision, good conduct and reading culture.
Following the feedback we got from the teachers and students of schools visited, we made efforts to get a State Government to sponsor Stand Out and we even had a meeting with the Deputy Governor, but nothing was forthcoming.
However, from Stand Out, we started the Future Leaders Summit for Secondary School students in May, 2016 and going with the original plan of tReE Funds we had the maiden edition of Live Mentoring Session for undergraduates in September, 2016; and by October 6, 2016 tReE Funds was officially registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as an NGO by the name the Redefined Education Endowment Foundation.
What were the main challenges you faced early on when you started this Vision and how did you overcome them?
The main challenge was getting funds to execute the initiative, and this was partially overcome through the faculty membership concept. Although that was the initial plan of tReE Funds, which was meant to attract people with different academic background and career focus to serve as mentors for young people going their direction. Before seeking the registration, I wrote to people with credible track record in academics and corporate world within and outside Nigeria to be faculty members of tReE Funds sharing the vision with them; of the 50 people contacted, 30 responded positively and their financial support at interval has been helpful.
What was the biggest challenge you ever faced since you started?
The biggest challenge is getting the resources to accomplish many things we have in the pipeline.
What do you consider success in your Project/Non-profit?
Success to this project is getting Nigerian University students to see the social relevance of education and apply it in that regards – every course of study instills a knowledge or skill in a student that can be applied to solving a social problem.
Success to us is getting the secondary school students planning to study further, to find a course of study that would align with their natural ability or getting a University course that would help them enhance their talent rather than just seeking to study any course.
Success to us is being able to reach Nigerians studying abroad to achieve the original plan of initiating a discussion among them about how to apply their expertise to developing the Nigerian nation and attracting them back to solve the problem of brain drain.
Success to us is being able to generate enough funds for alternative scholarship opportunities, to support education in the grass root communities and sponsor curriculum redesigning using a Public University, where the masses send their children, as a model, and seeing this being adopted by other higher institutions in the country.
At what point did you begin to achieve success in your pursuit of your Vision and how did it happen?
At the point of receiving the encouraging feedbacks from teachers and students of schools visited with ‘Stand Out’ and when we got a World Bank supported Organisation to partner with us and sponsor the maiden edition of tReE Funds’ Future Leaders’ Summit for secondary schools. We have also started getting recommendation of available scholarship opportunities we could share on our social media platforms from foreign organisations. Likewise there is an increasing followership not only from young Nigerians, but also from the international community of young people seeking for support to further their education.
What would you consider your greatest achievement ever you since you started?
Getting the calibre of people that accepted to be Faculty Members of tReE Funds is a great achievement, for instance one of them is the Director of a reputable Centre in the UK and a facilitator at UN, especially UNESCO and UNICEF events, and we have not met in real life. Other similar achievements are getting the audience with the Deputy Governor - having received our letter of introduction if the tReE Funds made no sense, we would not have been given that audience; and getting an invitation from a reputable Multinational to talk about our Initiative was also a good one to us. However, all this put together are only meant to help us achieve the items listed as answer to question 6 above and until then, we cannot yet record them as our greatest accomplishments.
If you could go back in time, what are the changes you would have made for your Project/Non-profit?
Clear-cut definition of the roles of each faculty member, what are expected of them and what they should expect as the organization grows.
What else should we see you doing in the Future?
We have recently launched Future Leaders prizes in a primary and secondary school; we have the plan of extending it to teachers and as well to more schools.
We have the plan of ensuring that LivMentS cover as many higher institutions as possible and that FLS be replicated in other regions apart from Osun State.
We have the plans of profession-specific summit for young professionals and we have experienced faculty members within and outside the country that could anchor such.
We are still working on building the education endowment funds to provide the education support as envisioned at the inception of tReE Funds Initiative.
We have the plan of ensuring that LivMentS cover as many higher institutions as possible and that FLS be replicated in other regions apart from Osun State.
We have the plans of profession-specific summit for young professionals and we have experienced faculty members within and outside the country that could anchor such.
We are still working on building the education endowment funds to provide the education support as envisioned at the inception of tReE Funds Initiative.
What's the most important lesson you have learnt since you started your Non-profit project?
Every idea, no matter how fantastic, remains a mere dream until the first step towards actualization is taken. There can never be any better time to launch out with an idea than now; either now or then you will meet with challenges that could become stepping stones to great accomplishments.
Kindly share your thoughts about this story in the comment section below
Click here for more...
Connect with Attain on Facebook
If this story inspired you, then click the share button below to inspire others too.
Comments
Post a Comment