Agboola Afees Akinola is a development professional, an advocate for equity, girl-child rights and inclusive education, end to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), quality education and community development. He works with YouthHubAfrica as a Program Officer on Education.
He is the Founder and CEO of Bloom Entrepreneurship Leadership and Advocacy Centre (BELAC), Olùránsé Nigeria and GrowWithAgboola where he takes charge of strategic thinking and programme planning. BELAC is an entrepreneurship, leadership and advocacy centre training youth on the core areas as well as volunteering, community service and exposing them to opportunities and materials for self development and community participation.
There something more unique about Agboola Afees Akinola, the spirit of resilience he posses. Resilient people are aware of situations, their own emotional reactions, and the behavior of those around them. By remaining aware, they can maintain control of a situation and think of new ways to tackle problems. In many cases, resilient people emerge stronger after such difficulties.
Lately, Agboola Afees share his story on how he was accepted into the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship at McGill University earlier this year after 5 Years applying for different opportunities with 39 rejections.
The power of resilience is at the very heart of wellbeing and is made up of the 7Cs: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control. Read on and learn the reality of life and what resilience really means from Agboola Afees.
Competence & confidence
If a person displays a particular passion for something or aptitude for a specific skill, activity or sport, we need to recognise this and let them know we’ve noticed and encourage them. There is need to be careful not to undermine confidence, but develop it by pushing others to achieve and creating appropriate opportunities for experiencing success.
“If anyone had told me in 2016 when I started the scholarship hunting that it would take me five years before I eventually won a scholarship, I would have probably not believed. Although I knew not being a First-Class Graduate (a story for another day) might limit my chances, I was determined to give it all it takes. After all, who allows a 4.43 CGPA, despite active participation in school politics, to go to waste (chuckles)? I never knew it would take this long but I had a strong conviction that I would never QUIT and no matter the number of NOs, they will never stop my ONE YES of great opportunities to come.”
Connection & character
We must have a close ties to family, friends, school, and community and give others a sense of security. There must be a need for understanding right, wrong and the capacity to follow a moral compass.
“I decided I would keep going as long as age would permit me. I made a promise with God and I asked Him to grant my wish of a fully paid master’s programme outside Nigeria and I can’t but thank Him again for granting the wish, beautifully, in one of the best universities in the world,” he said.
Contribution, coping & control
When we understand the feel-good factor of helping others, it becomes easier to ask for help when it’s needed – being willing to ask for help is a big part of being resilient.Implementing stress strategies which involves engaging and disengaging such as breaking down seemingly impossible problems and challenges into smaller, achievable pieces, avoiding things that trigger extreme anxiety, and just letting some things go. We should realise that we can control our decisions and actions, they’re more likely to know that they have what it takes to bounce back.
“Where I got the strength to keep on, I can’t explain but it was worth it eventually. I also enjoyed the support of my family members for the motivation and prayers and many other people (I will soon appreciate). But now, I must thank two great people in my life who gave the best reference letters anyone could get – Prof. Seun Kolade and Mr Rotimi Olawale (My boss). I can’t thank you both enough, perhaps, the win would have been another NO but for the truly great words, you put forward on my person.
The opportunities I applied for and REJECTED:
1. Commonwealth Shared Scholarship – 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020
2. Chevening Scholarship – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
3. The Yenching Academy, Peking University, China – 2019, 2020
4. PETaL EMJMD – Play, Education, Toys & Languages – 2019
5. Erasmus Mundus – International Master in Adult Education for Social Change (IMAESC) – 2016, 2020 (RESERVE)
6. GLODEP Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree – 2017
7. Mastercard McGill University – 2019
8. Mastercard Edinburgh – 2020
9. Australia Awards Scholarship – 2019
10. Erasmus Mundus Master in Research & Innovation in Higher Education – 2019, 2020
11. The University of North Dakota – 2017
12. EMMIR – European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations – 2016
13. Atlas Corps – 2017, 2019, 2020
14. YALI Mandela Washington – 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020
15. YALI RLC West Africa – 2017, 2018
16. British Council Future Leaders Connect – 2017, 2018
17. ONE Champion – 2019, 2020
18. World Youth Forum – 2018, 2019
19. Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship – 2020Within this time, I wrote IELTS two times in 2017 (7/9 Band – expired without any scholarship won) and 2019 (7.5/9 Band – not required by my current school).
Are you thinking of quitting, well, here you have your story to keep you going? You may change the plan, the strategies, ‘pause and play’, ruminate and ask yourself “what do I need to do better?” (I did too – a story for another day as well) but don’t change the goal” Afees added.
