My secret to being able to do this much is lies in my circle of friends and team members. I have amazing friends and team members who contribute equally to ensure the success of all the projects that I have. A big shout out to all the team members in all the organizations where I work. I love you very much. Early, this year, I wrote about starting my new year in March, and I shared the goals that I set for myself. So far, the year has been good, and if I were to judge my performance, I would give myself 8/10. This year, I am spending more time to help other people achieve their goals. I am investing my time in volunteering and being a resource to people within my reach and in my community. I previously planned to do an internship this summer. However, things did not go as planned so, I decided to use my summer break to work on 6 main projects. First, I am working towards restoring a club that I am very interested in being a part of, at the university that I attend; New York University. I will write more about my experience with this project towards the end of the year. I was motivated to work on this project mainly because I took two classes in the spring semester that changed my outlook on leadership and management. The two classes; Organizational Behavior and Business Management were taught by the John Burnett. There are three particular lessons that I took away from his course; 1. Never hold back to lead, if you know that you are capable of wearing the hat 2. Leadership involves knowing your team and helping them to work productively; efficiently and effectively 3. As a leader, you can't turn a blind eye to particular problems in your circle; you must learn to address issues professionally and effect changes that prevent recurrences of such problems It was such a pleasure taking a class with John Burnett, but it is a greater pleasure seeing the excellent results I am getting from applying the knowledge I gained from his lessons.  Second, I am working with my team at Sprinng Literary Movement which I co-founded, to run our annual poetry contest in Nigeria between June and August. We are anticipating receiving at least 250 submissions for this contest. Another project that my team and I are working on is the second cohort of an online writing mentorship program that we started in January. The Sprinng Literary Movement Mentorship Program is an intensive 3-weeks online program. This program is for developing writers with great potential and willingness to learn.  It is strictly for Nigerian writers between the ages of 16-25, who reside in Nigeria, and who have not published a book. In January 2018, 9 writers were selected to be mentees in the program and in August 2018, only 15 writers will be chosen for this program. So far, these we have 13 mentors that we have to serve the program in August. I am anticipating that we will receive about and possibly above 120 application submissions for this mentorship program. My team and I are working on finding more mentors that will help to coach these developing Nigerian writers on a larger scale.  Fourth, I am volunteering with an organization called Natural Flowers. Natural Flowers started in January 2018 and was founded by Awonusi Temitope Aina, a student of University of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is an organization that is dedicated to assisting victims of sexual assault and harassment in Nigeria by providing lessons on healing within 12 weeks. This summer, I will be working with Temitope to plan and prepare well for the next 12-week sessions that she will be facilitating for the selected participants of the program.  Fifth, I am volunteering with an organization named CTCTW: Children That Change The World. CTCTW's goal is to make educational resources available to every child beginning from Ogbomoso, in Oyo State, Nigeria. We provide scholarships, critical thinking classes, radio sessions, and after-school lessons to children and young adults in Ogbomosho. Recently, we organized a contest named the Ogbomosho Innovative Contest where we gave out a total of N445,000 (Naira) to 9 students from three schools to fund innovative ideas that they presented to improve and impact their community. The success of this contest was recognized by Oyo state governor; Abiola Ajimobi. We are currently scouting for donations to support more student in Ogbomosho and beyond. The contributions we receive will be invested in providing scholarships and educational supplies to the students in the community. We appreciate whatever you donate, no matter how little.  Lastly, I am finalizing my third book. The title will soon be announced and released in a few days. I have been posting excerpts on my Instagram page, and I can’t wait to publish the book. It is a poetic-prose anthology that gives a voice to the silent stories of many women. The book merges stories of places where women have walked, and their bodies have survived. It is about the trajectory of silence stemmed from unfortunate experiences like domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, eating disorders, miscarriage, bullying, and trauma. The book is written in a unique way and with a distinctive tone that isn’t often found especially in African literature. It leads all of us home. However, it aims to take many women to a room filled with self-realization. After reading this blog post, you are probably thinking one of these two things; 1. Damn! She’s doing too much, where does she get her energy from? 2. Damn! She’s a badass! My secret to being able to do this much is lies in my circle of friends and team members. I have amazing friends and team members who contribute equally to ensure the success of all the projects that I have. A big shout out to all the team members in all the organizations where I work. I love you very much. Note: If you have an Amazon account and you have purchased a copy of my book; To Bee a Honey, I’ll appreciate your feedback on Amazon. Your simple act of kindness goes a long way in promoting my book to other interested buyers. If you don’t have a copy, it is not too late to purchase it. Comments are closed.
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