Graduate Class of 2022
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Andrews Nartey
Faculty of Medicine
Andrews is a trained optometrist who graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana with ‘Distinction’ in Doctor of Optometry (O.D.). His mentors describe him as meticulous, well-rounded, and strongly positioned to act as a transformational leader. At KNUST, Andrews leveraged his charismatic personality to serve as Chairperson on health committees of the Optometry Students Association of Ghana, KNUST Chapter, where he mobilized colleagues to embark on numerous clinical outreach programs – which doubled as population-based studies to augment epidemiologic literature in Ghana. He was one of the brains behind a free eye-screening initiative for schools in the region to detect and manage vision problems among schoolchildren. Andrews extended his clinical practice beyond the consulting room, reaching out to communities biweekly. Passionate about population health, he received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust grant to broaden his knowledge on community health. An erstwhile recipient of the United World College International Youth Scholarship, Andrews has sustained his zest for youth development through teaching activities and he recently started a non-profit initiative, “The Yeoman” with one of its goals geared towards helping the youth discover and achieve their potentials.
Andrews believes the Public Health graduate curriculum at UBC is rigorous and well-suited to enrich his knowledge and skills in promoting health equity in his community through sound healthcare leadership and effective Public Health research. He is excited to study and network in a beautiful, cosmopolitan academic environment like UBC. During his leisure hours, he hikes, and writes poetry, short fictions, as well as inspirational and thought-provoking quotes.
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Claire Louise Okatch
Faculty of Arts
Claire Louise Okatch is a Kenyan by birth and enthusiastically claims her matrilineal Tanzanian heritage. She holds a BA in Social Research and Public Policy and a minor in Mandarin Chinese from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). She also graduated from United World College (UWC) of South East Asia in 2014. She considers herself a lifelong advocate for inclusive policy making that creates space for the female, youth and Black voice. For the last 7 years, she has been heavily involved in establishing and expanding youth networks with particular emphasis on global citizenship, education, heritage and gender equity. She has worked with youth networks and community groups in South Africa, Mozambique, the UAE, East Africa and South East Asia to this end.
Claire has worked as an independent consultant with clients such as NYUAD which led to her retention as a youth advisor for the Dhakira Center of Heritage at NYUAD and Center for International Heritage Activities. She currently serves on the Kenya National Committee of UWC and brings with her volunteer experiences from the National Committees of China and Singapore. She is also the lead coordinator of the UWC Short Course held annually in Moshi Tanzania which brings together 16-19-year-olds from around the world to learn about conflict and community building in the context of East Africa. She is pursuing an MPPGA with the hopes that this will further cement her policy practice capabilities in her search for a more just world for marginalized groups.
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Abigail Okyere
Sauder School of Business
Abigail embodies the true sense of optimism, resilience and vision. After completing the University of Ghana Business School with First Class Honors, she went ahead to qualify as a chartered management accountant. She co-founded an entrepreneurial business in online grocery shopping to bridge the gap between local farmers and market women. This later metamorphosed into her passion to help improve the Agric sector of Ghana and help make rural living more lucrative.
As one of the core leaders of The GracedLife Leadership Centre (a non-profit Christian organization set up to reorient the mindset of the African youth to foster selflessness and generational thinking in whatever sphere of leadership they find themselves), she currently trains young people in creative arts, theatre and TV production, after setting up her own theatre production company. She has over the course of 4 years, staged plays on both national and academic platforms, trained several young people and created jobs for others in the process. Abigail is also passionate about transforming the energy sector of Africa and make it more sustainable, a dream she birthed after working in the petroleum and energy sector of West Africa.She looks forward to turning the exposure and experience from the Sauder MBA program and the Mastercard Foundation’s support into providing policy support for the African continent in sustainability in energy and agriculture, as well as support her lifelong commitment of raising the next generation of global African leaders through mentorship.
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Victor Francis
Faculty of Science
Victor Francis is proud to call Benin, one of Nigeria’s historic cities, home. He graduated summa-cum-laude from the University of Ilorin with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. Victor was on the Vice Chancellor’s University Scholars Award list every year and won the Total/NNPC National Merit Scholarship. He was hand-picked three times to lead the academic and mentorship arms of CONCES – a 1000-student organization. Recently, Victor was part of a global team of 50 changemakers working with the United Nations to combat Terrorism Financing using Machine Learning. Victor is passionate about the fusion of technology and learning and strongly believes that technology-enabled and quality education at all levels will accelerate Africa’s development. He masterminded an intervention group that facilitates development programs in select Nigerian public schools. Inspired by his learning experience growing up in Nigeria, Victor aspires to build an Africa-focused technology company improving learning outcomes on the continent.
At UBC, Victor is pursuing the Masters of Data Science program. He is confident that the well-rounded MDS curriculum and astute faculties will impart the competencies to build community-impacting DataTech solutions. He is also excited to learn about different cultures at UBC.
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Taiwo Owoseni
Faculty of Science
Taiwo Owoseni received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. Her undying yearn for self-development pushed her to intern with Devcareers birthing her journey into Data Science. Driven by her curiosity for Data Science, she enrolled with AI Saturdays in Lagos- an active learning community dedicated to promoting Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Lagos. She explored this platform by networking with fellow AI and Data Science enthusiasts. Her passion for growth in the community made her volunteer to co-organize AI Saturdays in Lagos.
Taiwo has worked as a Data Analyst with OneHealth and Airtel Nigeria. She put her data-driven skills to use by creating informative reports for these organizations to make better decisions.
She interned with SKtime, a unified framework for machine learning with time series. She is passionate about creating Free and Open Source Softwares (FOSS). She continues to contribute to the expansion of the SKtime open source library. She also volunteers in the Sktime community council where she is involved in outreach and organizing virtual classes for users to learn about the importance of Sktime.Taiwo hopes to apply her experience at UBC, to contribute to the development of useful open-source tools to make Data Science and AI easier to navigate in industries. Leveraging the pool of networks studying at UBC presents, she intends to connect with professionals and researchers to learn how Data Science tools can be improved to solve health and commercial industries’ problems.
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Monday Michael
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Michael is an intelligent, hardworking, and determined goal-getter with exceptional leadership traits. He graduated top of his cohort with First-Class Honours in Agricultural and Resource Economics major and emerged the Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Agriculture at The Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. Michael brought his leadership skills to bear where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of his departmental Magazine “Masterplan for Efficient Agricultural Productivity” (MEAP). He served as the President of the NYSC/NDLEA Community Development Group, which committed to tackling drug and substance abuse, where he spearheaded a sensitization campaign against drug abuse and illegal trafficking to mark the 2019 UN Day against Drug abuse. The success of this campaign birthed the establishment of a drug-free club in three secondary schools and also served as an awakening call to sleeping stakeholders in his community.
Michael is a passionate academic and agriculturist and this has steered his participation in various agricultural and educational volunteering programs. At UBC, Michael will pursue the Master of Food and Resource Economics (MFRE) program. He aims to acquire the relevant skillset required for addressing pertinent agricultural challenges such as food insecurity, climate change, and rural development in order to enable farmers to maximize their agriculture gains. He looks forward to learning and thriving in the beautiful and serene environment at UBC.
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Khalid Muhumed Abdilahi
Faculty of Science
Khalid Abdilahi is a Software Engineer who has extensive experience in designing large-scale systems in big-data automation. His friends and colleagues regard him as someone who is passionate about software development, algorithmic thinking, and teaching others. Khalid graduated from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) in Malaysia with a First-Class Honours in Computer Science. Khalid co-founded a modern job posting platform Jobslope to solve the employment issues in Somalia, which had more than six thousand daily subscribers. He is passionate about mentoring young technology enthusiasts in his home country and was providing online programming classes and mentorship to students in various local universities.
He is excited to study in the Master of Data Science program at UBC and looking forward to meeting people who are passionate about data science and machine learning. Khalid believes studying at UBC will be an exciting new experience for him academically, professionally, and personally.
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Gretha Teta
Faculty of Forestry
Gretha has been described as “talented, driven, and spirited young woman”. As the “Most Outstanding Student in Geography” in 2014, 2015, and 2016 and recognized by her physics teacher as among the top three Physics students in her grade, she maintained an exceptional academic performance throughout high school. Gretha is a well-rounded student, involved in a wide-range of activities outside the classroom. She is a confident leader on the basketball court, a sport she has been involved in since primary.
Having served Environmental Prefect in 2015, and attending Mining Summer Program in South Dakota School of Mines in 2016, Gretha demonstrates a very deep concern and passion to improve the environmental conditions of her country. She is particularly concerned about issues to do with conservation as she highlights the poor conservation strategies for the rich forests of Nyungwe and Gishwati in Rwanda. She hopes through her Natural Resources Conservation degree at UBC, she will gain the skills to find a solution to Rwanda’s deforestation and conservation issues.
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Olaoluwa Michael Igbalajobi
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Olaoluwa is described by his lecturers as being an intelligent, optimistic, and determined person with a strong passion for academic excellence. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Federal University of Technology (FUTA), Nigeria, with First-Class Honours. He developed his interest in reading and teaching from his tender years, and his passion to make a positive impact led him to join several community groups. During his undergraduate studies, he was a secretary of the Sustainable Development Goals group in his community. He participated actively in various community campaigns, and his group championed SDGs 3 and 6 (Good health and well-being and Clean water and sanitation).Olaoluwa believes a Master’s degree in Land and Water Systems at the University of Columbia will help him to achieve his goal to build a sustainable environment community. He looks forward to learning and researching with state-of-the-art facilities at UBC. He is excited to experience the green environment and the serenity of Vancouver city.
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Quadri Idowu Akinremi
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Quadri is a modest, resilient, and intelligent individual passionate about academic excellence and the ability to use his talent to drive positive change in his community. He graduated as the overall best graduating student at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Food Science. Quadri was awarded the university scholar and student of the year award due to his enormous contribution to the university community in mentorship, tutoring, and leadership. He then also interned as an Operational Quality Assurance Officer at GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria PLC and as a Food Scientist at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi. Quadri is a food safety and security advocate who has volunteered to help different communities achieve sustainable development in education, food security, and a healthy environment. Quadri founded the Feed a Child Program (FCP) which is targeted at children and nursing mothers to reduce child hunger and stunting (chronic malnutrition).
Quadri is excited to be part of the UBC community and he is hoping to obtain a Ph.D. in Food Science (Food Safety) in the future. Thus, becoming a food safety and quality expert who can offer solutions to the diverse problems of food safety, toxicology, and nutrition. He is confident that the Master of Food Science program at UBC will be a stepping stone towards achieving his personal and career goals. Quadri is looking forward to working and networking with great minds, experiencing the diversified culture, and being trained by world-renowned faculty staff at UBC.
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Ifeoluwa Temitope Olalere
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Ifeoluwa is described by his academic mentors as being a promising young brilliant, smart, and highly intelligent individual with a strong passion for excellence. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Economics from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He graduated with First-Class Honours and won the “First Bank Plc Overall-Best Mathematics Student” award for two consecutive years.
Ifeoluwa has worked as President, General Secretary, Financial Officer, and Provost of several student and voluntary organizations ranging from the Baptist Students (BSF), Royal Ambassador of Nigeria (RAN), and Community Development Service (CDS) group where he was responsible in the advocacy for rural education, improved living standards of rural dwellers and rural students’ mentorship.
Ifeoluwa’s passion for community development propelled him to volunteer in many community outreach programs including COBES and CDS where he co-organized sensitization programs for rural households on the prevalence of crop pests, diseases and control, adoption of modern agricultural practices, and a hygienic environment. As a graduate assistant at Kwara State University, Malete, he worked with agricultural experts in conducting field research, data collection, and analysis on food production.He believes that Master of Food and Resource Economics (MFRE) will equip him with the right skills to build a career path in becoming a proficient agrobusiness consultant and policy analyst where he hopes to focus on formulating food relating policies to alleviate food insecurity issues in Nigeria. He is thrilled to join UBC and looks forward to experiencing Vancouver’s multi-cultural diversity.
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Francis Kpatakpa
Faculty of Forestry
Francis is a great team player and a passionate nature conservation activist. He has a positive attitude towards work and embraces innovative ways of learning. He graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management (Silviculture and Forest Management) with First-Class Honors.
Francis was actively engaged in activities and was a part of the ecological campaign against Bauxite mining in Ghana’s Atewa Forest Reserve, school and community sensitization programs, and restoration of degraded forest. During his undergraduate study, he was a volunteer as an Operations personnel at the Forestry Commission of Ghana. His continuous passion and dedication for forest conservation led to his current role as a Natural Resource Management Officer at Advocates for Biodiversity Conservation-Ghana (ABC-Ghana), a non-profit organization. He and his team are currently working on a Bamboo Agroforestry project to support the livelihoods of farmers and explore the potential for carbon credit. As part of his accomplishments, he led the ABC-Ghana team to successfully establish a Clonal Bamboo Mother Nursery in the Eastern Region of Ghana.He aspires to become a renowned Forest Research Scientist whose work will contribute to the country’s commitment toward the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. He is elated knowing that UBC provides a conducive environment for cross-disciplinary studies and the development of transferable skills including cross-cutting technology. He is pursuing a Master of International Forestry.
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Shukurah Dhupe Alabi
Faculty of Forestry
Shukurah identifies as a smart, diligent, and persistent individual with a penchant for academic excellence. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management at the Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta, Nigeria with First-Class Honours and was the best student. Actively passionate about volunteerism and community development services, Shukurah continuously strives to give back to her community. During her tenure as the President of the Agro-Allied Community Development Services group, at the National Youth Service Corp Program (NYSC) she organized empowerment programs to train indigenous farmers in Ile-Ife, Osun, Nigeria on the use of neem plants as plant-based pesticides for insect control.
Shukurah is a young conservationist and a citizen scientist for the Nigeria South West Atlas Team where she worked with wildlife professionals traveling across several states to collect data on birds for the Nigeria Bird Atlas Project. She recently volunteered at the FUNAAB Zoological Park, a position that allowed her to work with wildlife and build up her wildlife photography skills.Her decision to study Master of Sustainable Forest Management (MSFM) at UBC stemmed from her desire to engage in collaborative researches with a diverse community to address forest-related issues and environmental degradation. She is confident that MSFM will refine her skills and knowledge of conservation to create strategic measures necessary to increase the focus of forest and biodiversity conservation for sustainability in her home country. Ultimately, Shukurah looks forward to becoming a voice of change with an interdisciplinary approach in the Nigerian Forestry Sector.
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Graduate Class before 2022
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Abraham Tetteh Addy
Faculty of Education
Abraham Tetteh Addy is an ardent fan of ethical leadership and a graduate of Ashesi University in Ghana with a first-class degree in Business Administration. His passion for improved education and sanitation in Ghana allowed him to work to initiate educational and sanitation ventures such as Yensua Educational Support (YES), Trash4Ed, TranSite, Happy Home Eco-sanitation Company (HHESCO), and Ahote Sanitation Project. For the past seven years, Abraham has been working in the education and sanitation sectors in Ghana and with rural communities to come up with community-led solutions to the issues of education and sanitation via a process of co-creation. Based on the impact of his work, he has been recognized as a Resolution Fellow, Royal Commonwealth Society Associate Fellow, and Queen’s Young Leader.
Abraham has carved a personal mission for himself, which is to enhance his knowledge and skills in educational leadership and to use that to help ensure a good blend of values acquisition and knowledge acquisition in educational institutions in Ghana. This personal mission is the main reason he is excited about pursuing his MEd in Higher Education at the UBC. Consequently, Abraham is eager to capitalize on the excellent facilities, diversity, and faculty at UBC and to use such an opportunity to accomplish his personal mission and help create an ethical society in his home country, Ghana.
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Kwaghdoo Sussan Agber
Faculty of Forestry
Kwaghdoo (Sussan) is a graduate of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM) in Nigeria with a Bachelor of Forestry Degree in Wildlife and Range Management. Throughout her time at UAM, she was actively engaged in action oriented activities to inspire young people to participate in environmental protection. She attended the 22nd Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Marrakech Morocco. Sussan cares very deeply about the issues of forest management and the worsening conditions of climate change in Nigeria. She is passionate about development work, particularly with regards to the environment, and is translating her knowledge and energy for environmental conservation and improved livelihoods to serve her community. She recently volunteered with ATO-ClimatEducate Project Philippines as the African Project Regional Manager, Women Environmental Program, Abuja, Team54 Project International as the Project’s Acting Coordinator for Nigeria, Mediatrix Development Foundation Calabar and Devtrain CEDI.
Sussan’s ultimate goal is to become a professor in Forestry and to create a Non- Governmental Foundation that will be actively committed to training the staff of the National Park Services and Game Reserves in Nigeria, along with communities adjacent to the National Parks. She pursuing a Masters in International Forestry in order to improve her scope on International forest policies, governance and especially in the area diplomacy and negotiations engagements.
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Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Akinyele
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Tobi is an intelligent, optimistic, cheerful and determined individual with a strong passion for academic excellence. She recently graduated as the University Overall Best Graduating student at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria, where she obtained her Bachelor degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She has grown to become a Food Science and Nutrition enthusiast, who is passionate about her academics and is constantly driven by the desire to improve herself with every given opportunity. Tobi has a great background in Nutrition, and has been fortunate to gain a deeper knowledge of Dietetics via her undergraduate internship program and during her mandatory National Youth Service Program (NYSC) at the Mother and Child Hospital, Akure, Nigeria. She has also been heavenly involved in numerous volunteering experiences and recently launched her initiative, TOL Initiative, which aims to reach out to those in the rural communities and sensitizing them to the importance of nutrition on their health.
Tobi hopes to one day pursue and obtain her PhD in Food and Nutrition and ultimately become a Professor of Food Science and Nutrition. Her long-term career aspirations include: contributing to the development and implementation of nutrition policies, finding solutions to tackle food insecurity, improve access to healthy foods, and work with organizations that take part in the dissemination of safe foods and nutrition-related information in order to fight against malnutrition in her community. She is excited to network and learn with great minds, learn about diverse cultures, and most importantly, learn from the outstanding staff at the UBC.
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Blessing Mangwanda
Faculty of Forestry
Blessing is a determined and enthusiastic professional who possesses a drive, self- initiative, and passion for environmental sustainability and climate change. While at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), he co-founded Green Associates, a student club that focuses on raising environmental awareness amongst students and neighboring communities. In 2016 he graduated top of his class with a Dean Honor Award, and a First-Class Bachelor of Science honors degree in Geographical Information Science (GIS) and Earth Observation (EO).
Blessing is a goal-oriented leader who has demonstrated a strong ethos of giving back. While a student and teaching assistant in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science (GIS and EO Center) at UZ, he worked in partnership with GEF, Oxfam, SAFIRE, and UNDP to break technological barriers, improve environmental management and scale up climate adaptation for smallholder farmers. Among other milestones, his team developed a tailored geo-enabled environmental and climate information system which has impacted more than 5000+ smallholder farmers to date.
At UBC, Blessing will pursue the Master of Geomatics for Environmental Management (MGEM) program to gain modern technical skills and knowledge needed to better understand environmental regulations, and strategies for innovative, comprehensive environmental management. Blessing plans on starting an organization that will help foster environmental sustainability through improved environmental interventions that will impact Zimbabwe’s rural communities and urban centers. Blessing is also enthusiastic about business development, public health, and data science. In his spare time, he likes to code, dance, and play chess. Blessing is excited about his upcoming studies and being immersed in the community in Vancouver.
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Joshua Azza
Faculty of Medicine
Joshua holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University where he pursued a double major in Biology and Music with a Performance Concertation, and a minor in Chemistry. His mentors describe him as adventurous, eager to learn, innovative, and a passionate individual with many talents. He was a recipient of the Duke Karsh international scholarship, a merit-based full scholarship offered to the top students in the world. Joshua grew up in a rustic coastal village in Tanzania where he witnessed the lack of education in preventive care and poor access to health care services affecting the lower socio-economical class and non-government workers without health insurance. Joshua’s perspective of similar public health challenges in developing countries broadened when he joined the Karsh Mentorship Initiative (KMI) at Duke University. With KMI, he volunteered and co-led multiple summer camps for secondary students in Nepal, teaching waste management, child labor and designing interdisciplinary curriculum for students for other social impact projects. Through his volunteering and shadowing experiences in the medical centers at home, Joshua’s passion is refined to reform the health insurance system to accommodate patients from different financial backgrounds and to tackle socio-cultural factors hindering the health care education in Tanzania.
Joshua is thrilled to meet the diverse community at UBC and to commence his Masters of Public Health (MPH). Joshua strongly believes that UBC’s MPH curriculum that extensively covers the Canadian health policy and offers hands-on practicum experience, will enable him to navigate through, and approach the Tanzania health Policy creatively, and in the process facilitate his dream to better the Tanzania health care system.
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Tomiyosi (Bola) Bola
Faculty of Forestry
Tomiyosi is a highly motivated individual committed to research, learning and excellence. He is a First Class Honours graduate in Forestry and Wood Technology from the Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA) Nigeria. His academic mentor describes him as having a passion for acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, having an inquisitive mind and strong work ethic. He was elected to serve on different occasions as the Public Relations Officer and General Secretary of the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) FUTA Chapter. In his final year, he co-founded an NGO named Edenworld Initiative which carries out climate change advocacy and awareness through forest education. As a graduate research assistant at the University of Calabar Nigeria, Tomiyosi has had the opportunity to work in his research interests, forest inventory and biometrics, ecology and forest stand dynamics, geographical information system, and remote sensing.
Tomiyosi has a passion for community service and positive change, he believes that Master of Science in Forestry will expose him to high quality and innovative teaching which will develop his research skills and capacity to better contribute to the body of knowledge at a global scale. He also believes this will better position him to offer workable solutions to several indigenous environmental challenges threatening sustainable forest management in Nigeria. His ultimate goal is to become a proficient data analyst and biometrician in forestry.
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Ilemobayo (Bimbo) Abimbola
Faculty of Forestry
Bimbo is ambitious, highly organized, result oriented and committed to making the world more sustainable. She obtained a Bachelor degree in Forestry and Wood Technology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria. Having witnessed the increasing rate of deforestation and degradation of the most diverse single ecological zone in the southern region of Nigeria, Bimbo is particularly interested in sustainable forest resource management, climate change awareness, adaptation strategies and mitigation among the rural communities as she believes the rural farmers are the most vulnerable in developing countries. Her passion for sustainability has made her to be deeply involved in forestry activities. During her undergraduate days, she led a group of students in her department to donate tree seedlings to rural farmers and also, educate them about forestry. She further encouraged them on the need to involve rural women in forestry activities. Recently, Bimbo co-founded an NGO named One Tree Initiative and Research (OTI&R) with the sole aim of training young advocates for interest in forestry and as well, research into subject matters of the 21st century challenges caused by human activities.
Bimbo sees herself as a researcher that would be involved in reshaping the forestry sub-sector and contribute her quota to sustainable forest resource management. She is excited about studying MSc Forestry at UBC as this would eventually help her reach both her career and personal goals.
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Marian Orhierhor
Faculty of Medicine
Marian is described by her lecturers as being resilient, hardworking, and an innovative person. She obtained her Bachelor in Animal and Environmental Biology from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Nigeria, where she graduated with a first-class honors degree and ranked as the best student in the department. She received the Stephen Oluwole Awokoya foundation award for science education in Nigeria, as a result of her academic achievements. Marian is passionate about contributing her quota to develop society and has volunteered with NGO’s whose mission focuses on human development, she’s also a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) West Africa alumnus. During her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), she volunteered to teach and mentor students to help them excel in their academics, and provided them with writing materials. She was recognized as an outstanding ambassador by the Youth Development Center of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, as she promoted online and offline campaigns to create awareness on the dangers of Irregular Migration. She is the coordinator of an NGO, Humanity Project Africa, and led a team of health professionals to provide free health care services to over 150 people in a rural community in South Nigeria.
Marian believes a Master’s degree in Public Health at UBC will expose her to advanced knowledge and innovative techniques which will equip her to engage in impact-driven research projects which will provide evidence for decision and policy makers in Nigeria’s health sector, and offer sustainable solutions to Epidemiology-related concerns both locally and internationally. She’s particularly excited about learning from academics who are key players in public health in Canada and beyond. She looks forward to interacting with outstanding scholars and establishing solid social networks for future collaborations.
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Chidimma Nancy Sunday
Faculty of Medicine
Nancy is an ambitious goal-oriented pharmacist, with a growing interests in population and public health. She obtained a Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm), as well as a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) degree at the University of Benin, Benin City (UNIBEN). During her undergraduate studies, she held a leadership position as a congresswoman in the Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Students, counselling teenagers prone to drug abuse. She participated actively in an outreach held in Kuje village, Abuja, Nigeria, amidst a team of young pharmacists, supported by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control, NAFDAC. She planned outreach programs to adolescents in suburbs of Abuja during which she educated teenagers on topics ranging from personal hygiene to dangers of drug abuse.
Nancy believes in gaining knowledge and technical skills in disease control and prevention through the Master of Public Health program offered by University of British Columbia. As an aspiring public health professional, she hope to take advantage of the rich Global Health curriculum as well as the prestige of a world-class and socio-culturally diverse learning space with an academically excellent Faculty. She is excited by UBC’s fantastic practicum opportunity which provides a platform for students to integrate classroom learning and practice in a population or public health work environment, to contribute to African Healthcare mandate and address the health problem of Nigerian rural villages.
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Timilehin (Timmy) Oguntuyaki
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Timmy is an ardent environmental sustainability enthusiast, an environmental geoscientist, and is passionate about education. He is a recent graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria, where he obtained a Bachelor of Technology in Applied Geology with First Class Honors.
He founded U-excel Initiative in May 2018, an education platform through which he has mentored about 58 undergraduate students to achieve academic excellence. He was the Campus Director of the first edition of Business and Entrepreneurship (BAE) Summit held at FUTA (2017). Since his graduation, the Youth Resource Network, Africa (organizers of BAE Summit) appointed him as the Director of Logistics for the Summit. He has acted in this position on 3 different occasions of the summit in FUTA (2018), JABU (2019) and the University of Ilorin (2019). Altogether, more than 5000 Nigerian youths have been impacted by the program. Reports show that about 1200 businesses have been started and more than 500 existing businesses have been accelerated as a result of the summit.As an Environmental scientist, Timmy is concerned about the environmental situation in Southwestern Nigeria, hence his application to the UBC-Master of Land and Water Systems program. He looks forward to getting as much knowledge at UBC, as he would need to contribute to the development of the Southwestern Nigeria.
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Muthoni Mutung’u
Sauder School of Business
Muthoni is described as creative, innovative, kind, adventurous, calm, determined and somewhat humorous. She graduated with honors from the University of Nairobi (UON), with a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing). She has now been a Business and Marketing professional for almost 7 years. Over the years, she has undergone various trainings and through Google, receiving a certificate in Digital Advertising. She has previously worked in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather, and ventured into different fields thereafter, such as Brand Management, Business Development and Consulting. After University, she worked on a project to help improve and generate revenue for the department of small and large animal clinic at the University of Nairobi Enterprises and Services Ltd. Through this, she learned that she could help make a difference using her skills in Business and Marketing. She therefore shifted her focus to the arts, for which she developed a passion.
Muthoni has always been a lover of arts, particularly in Africa. She has previously worked with artisans (tailors, shoe makers, jewelers etc.) and provided consulting for their small businesses, to help them run successful and profitable businesses. Africa is rich in culture and talent, with a vibrant arts industry and she would love to be part of raising its voice further. Through the Sauder MBA, she intends to learn about innovation and technology in entrepreneurship, and through its various resources and networks, she hopes she can further expose and grow this industry globally.
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Emmanuel (Kofi) Kwarah
Faculty of Education
Kofi is a hardworking, intelligent, passionate and self-disciplined person. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education from the University of Education, Winneba in Ghana. Having being touched by his own experience growing up and studying in rural areas with limited to no learning resources and a shortage of trained teachers, he took it upon himself to support other students in similar disadvantaged situations. After graduating from the teacher education program, he formed a group called “Science Teachers for Rural Areas” with support from like-minded colleagues. Every weekend, they travelled to school districts in rural communities to organize workshops and teaching outreach programs for untrained science teachers and also offer remedial science and mathematics lessons for students in these deprived areas. These workshops were meant to offer pedagogical strategies and ways teachers could improvise science teaching materials using resources readily available in the local environment in place of more sophisticated science materials or equipment which are usually not available or too expensive to purchase.
Unfortunately, Ghanaian students in rural areas have long been victims of shortage of science teachers and learning resources. Kofi’s desire to pursue a Masters in Science Education would be a step towards bridging the human resource gap. He intends to collaborate with Ghana education services to establish a non-for-profit science learning center to offer workshops and training to teachers in rural areas, who mostly do not have a college education diploma. Kofi is thrilled to be part of UBC’s multicultural community, to share his experience with peers and learn from them. For him, it is a great privilege and honor to be given the opportunity to study at UBC and in a beautiful city like Vancouver located on the traditional, ancestral and unceeded territory of the Musqueam People.
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Uchechukwu (Uche) Enwerem
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Uche graduated from the Federal University of Science and Technology Owerri, with a First-Class Honors in Biochemistry. She is described as an intellectually curious and innovative individual, who is passionate about using her talent and time to bring positive impact and serve as an agent of change in her community. She has volunteered to help communities attain sustainable development especially in governance, environmental sustainability, education and food security. Uche is keen about helping youths rediscover themselves. This steered her participation in the National Ideathon competition organized by the Nigerian Women Trust Fund and USAID. She emerged the winner and established her initiative IntroGov. She has conducted over 20 outreach programs and established clubs in schools; inspiring youths to take bold steps towards leadership, civic participation and sustainable community development.
In addition to her unending zeal for a sustainable community, Uche is passionate about contributing to end hunger (SDG 2). She looks forward to a career path of becoming a successful food safety and quality expert where she hopes to focus on formulating better safe food processing and preservation techniques. She is thrilled to be part of a stimulating environment like UBC where she will be challenged to identify and solve problems relating to food safety and toxicology. She is confident that her Master of Food Science will equip her with skills that are necessary to achieve her academic and professional goals. Uche looks forward to joining the UBC community, experiencing its amazing cultural diversity and driving sustainability on campus through volunteering.
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Eithar Elbasheer
Faculty of Science
Eithar graduated from the University of Khartoum with a Bachelor in Electric and Electronic Engineering specializing in Software Engineering. During her undergraduate years, she grew a passion for social change. Believing in entrepreneurship as a powerful way to boost the economy of any country, Eithar started volunteering with local and international organizations supporting startups and young inventors. As the head of the Arab Innovation Network, University of Khartoum Chapter, she has been able to support graduation projects for engineering students in their final year by providing mentorship and research materials. After graduation, she volunteered with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community (IEC) as an outreach coordinator and then as a data analyst, attracting organizations, young innovators and investors. As a data analyst, she and her team concluded that the lack of understanding of the market and the needed solutions, are the major issues facing Entrepreneurship in Sudan. This is causing a great need for data scientists in Sudan.
Eithar’s ultimate goal is to start a data science consultancy office in Sudan to help young innovators build stronger business models and make a better understanding of the market. She is confident that a Masters of Data Science at UBC will provide her with not only the technical skills, but also the soft skills she will always need to be successful. Challenging herself by living in a completely different environment and working side by side with people from different cultures, will polish her leadership and communication skills, and ultimately help her acquire new perspectives.
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Sakariya Aynashe
Faculty of Science
Sakariya is known for being a young, enthusiastic and emerging leader, who is passionate about community outreach, tech literacy advancement and poverty alleviation. Sakariya completed a dual degree on Software Engineering from Asia Pacific University & Staffordshire University, UK. He is the co-founder & managing director of Tech Labs Academy, focusing on tech development, cognitive computing & data analytics. Sakariya is community-driven and is motivated to massively contribute towards achieving sustainability and self-sufficiency though development of human capital using tech-based environment.
After completion of his Master of Data Science program, Sakariya plans to expand his Academy to bridge the gap in the field of Data Science in Ethiopia. He aspires to expand his startup of Tech Labs Academy into a Tech & Data Analytics incubator that becomes a Science & Tech Hub for Ethiopia. Thus, he believes taking Data Science course will quench his thirst for amplifying his intellectual capacity and equip him with the necessary tools and technology skillset needed for his long-term vision. He hope to see the Tech Hub becoming the center for all technology startups and a knowledge & data warehouse for all emerging entrepreneurs across the African continent. This will help him lead initiatives to use data-driven environment to contribute towards achieving self-sufficiency level and food security in the fast growing Ethiopian population. Sakariya is truly excited to learn from the distinguished academic professionals and MCF Scholars at UBC and to have an exposure to the more vibrant and innovative Canadian culture.
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Esther (June) Kiama
Faculty of Education
June has a great passion for working with children and she describes herself as ambitious, visionary, balanced and selfless. She graduated from Moi University, Kenya, with a Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood and primary education-ECPE, emerging the top in her class. She has strong interests in teaching science and mathematics especially within early childhood and primary education sector, in which she has taught as a classroom teacher and a lecturer in ECPE teacher training colleges. During her tenure as a teacher, her personal commitment to research and practice resulted in her working as a health educator through a project entitled- “Promoting Healthy Living Through Schools; PHLTS”. The project promotes healthy living habits to avert preventable lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and other non-communicable diseases among primary school students. This experience motivated her to develop a voluntary health education program in her local community that gives children opportunities to be active in a productive way through science. June aims to provide opportunities for children to engage in innovations, educative and fun activities that are hands-on, focusing on science.
June believes that in order to strengthen this program, she needs to strengthen her knowledge and skills in science education. This is the reason for her interest in the Masters of Education in Science Education at UBC, as she believes it will help her realize her full potential as a science teacher. June’s greatest excitement about coming to Vancouver is learning amidst a myriad of cultures and experiencing the amazing scenery the country offers. She also looks forward to interacting and networking with the exceptional UBC community with a taste of multi-cultural diversity.
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Abdullah Jallow
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Jallow, who is described by his lecturers and mentors as very hardworking, patient and committed to excellence, is a recent graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Jallow’s life-long commitment to social responsibility stems from having grown up in Soma; a community in The Gambia where he observed firsthand how dependent households were on small scale farming and trading, but with little return to make ends meet. During his time at KNUST, he embarked on a give-back project called “Agrikafo”. Through Agrikafo, his team of young people established a network of smallholder farmers in his community and introduced them to the idea of union farming and the adoption of “microdosing” amongst other techniques geared toward enhancing their productivity and improving their standard of living.
It is this drive for the betterment of the developing world that motivates Jallow to join the Master of Food and Resource Economics (MFRE) program at UBC. He believes the program synergizes academic rigor with professionalism, inculcating graduates with the quantitative, analytical and policy analysis skill-set they need to transform the food and resource sector. Through the MFRE graduating project, Abdullah hopes to work closely with policy makers in his country in designing effective policies and setting the stage for a thriving food industry for generations to come. He is most looking forward to connecting well with UBC’s cutting-edge faculty, fellow scholars and exploring the amazing cultural diversity that Vancouver has to offer.
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Isaac Gyan
Faculty of Education
Isaac is a versatile, highly motivated and enthusiastic person with a strong interest in problem solving. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi in Ghana. He worked as a Clinical Skills and Simulation Technician, assisting students and lecturers to facilitate learning and teaching. Isaac has been involved in Problem Based Learning / E-learning project for KNUST which was sponsored and mentored by DANIDA. As part of the project, Isaac and his team trained lecturers and students on how to adopt e-learning in studies as well as encouraged lecturers to structure the teaching pedagogy to promote solving challenges in communities. Over the years, Isaac has contributed tremendously in promoting the adoption of e-learning in tertiary educational institutions. As he furthers his education, he hopes to gain more knowledge and contribute positively in promoting education in Ghana and surrounding countries.
Isaac is very excited about studying in one of the most multicultural cities in the world. He is passionate about how the Department of Education at UBC works deeply to solve global issues. With the available facilities, he believes the skills and knowledge to be gained will prepare him to meet the fast growing demand in Education. This will help in his vision of advancing in academia and advocating for e-learning and improving educational system in Ghana and Africa.
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Chimezie Daniel Uzoigwe
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Daniel graduated in 2014 as the best graduating student with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Statistics from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), winning six prizes including the Tony Elumelu Legacy Prize for academic and leadership excellence. He is committed to making a positive impact on people and any community he is part of. At UNIBEN, he founded Project Impact Initiative; a helpdesk that facilitated students’ access to opportunities that would enable them to make impact on campus and the larger society. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Economics Students’ association. Amidst many other volunteer commitments, he has been a United Nations Volunteer since 2013 working online to render technical assistance to NGOs in Africa. Daniel has served as a teaching and research assistant at a University and as an analyst in the management consulting practice of KPMG Professional Services in Lagos. Most recently, he has supported the Global Maritime Crime Programme at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes Country Office in Nigeria.
Daniel believes that the Master of Food and Resource Economics will equip him with the requisite skills and competencies to contribute in finding solutions to the food and resource challenges facing Nigeria, Africa and the World. While in Vancouver, he hopes to savor the natural beauty of one of the greenest cities in the World. He is excited about coming to UBC and hopes to apply himself to volunteering and building relationships that will form the basis for future partnerships for Africa’s development.
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Collins Tawiah
Faculty of Forestry
Collins is passionate about forest conservation and completed his BSc Natural Resources Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He has great desire to give back to his community and help support the development of those around him. After seeing the impact a dilapidated roof of a primary school near his community had on students, Collins contributed to its restoration by providing sufficient lumber allowing students to be able to attend classes during rainy seasons.
Collins is optimistic that through the Master of International Forestry (MIF) at UBC, he will acquire competent knowledge through collaborations with professors, fellow students and scholars who possess various backgrounds and expertise. Upon graduation, Collins envisions rising to the decision-making bodies in forestry and environment and changing the perception of Ghanaians and the sub-region. He would like to make sure that everybody is cognizant of how valuable forests are in our ecosystem and for our survival.
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Fayokemi (Fayo) Oluwayemi
Faculty of Land & Food Systems
Described by her lecturers and supervisors as intelligent, optimistic, and organized, Fayo has always been a bright student. She graduated with a First Class in Agriculture having majored in Soil Science from Landmark University, Omu-aran, Kwara State Nigeria. Despite facing challenges, she has always been determined and committed to achieving excellence. Her passion for nature conservation and volunteer service has made her committed to the development of the agricultural, educational and socio-economic sectors of Nigeria. In the quest to contribute in alleviating poverty and hunger in Nigeria, she was actively involved in a series of community outreach projects governing environment, food and water security particularly programs that support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She was also involved in the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and Making Nigeria Open Defecation Free by 2020 vision (SDGs Goal 6).
Fayo strongly believes that a Master’s in Land and Water Systems from UBC, will provide her with outstanding skills that would aid in offering risk-based scientific solutions through engaging experiments to securing a global sustainable society upon her return to Nigeria. Her career goal largely focuses on being a Natural Resources Practitioner or Environmental Professional Consultant in terms of community-based agriculture, food and water sustainability. She looks forward to the excellent research facilities, enriching academic faculties as well as global culture and interaction at UBC and Vancouver, Canada as a whole.
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Christabel Okonkwo
Faculty of Education
Christabel, received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics Education at the University of Jos. Christabel has taught people of all ages, from preschool kids to adults. She interned at a low income high school, where she saw the need for a better educational system that stewards talents for innovation and development.
Christabel’s career in education greatly defines her goals. She hopes to play a key role in decision and policy making in Nigeria’s educational system, to incorporate methods of teaching and learning that make learning science enjoyable. Christabel also looks forward to participating in a system that advocates for equality in education regardless of class or social group. Christabel is very excited about coming to UBC, Vancouver because she believes it is another big step towards reaching her goals. She believes that anyone can retrace their steps as long as they are determined to.
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Emmanuel Adoasi-Ahyiah
Faculty of Forestry
Emmanuel recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management as the best student in his Faculty and received the Youth Excellence League (YEL) Award from the Beige Foundation through Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Throughout Emmanuel’s study, he availed himself to teach colleagues who found it difficult to understand coursework and volunteered to teach and mentor young students in his community to help them excel in their academic work. His undergraduate research concentrated on how forest plant biomass could be used to improve crop growth and yield, and improve soils in small-holder farms in fringe communities of KNUST. Emmanuel participated keenly in community outreaches on sustainable forest and natural resources management, educating people on climate change, food security, ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. His career goals are geared toward forest and natural resource conservation and education, environmental research and lecturing. Fulfilling these goals would enable him to carry out independent scientific and technical research and assessments on forests and natural resources, and propose sustainable solutions to ecosystems and biodiversity problems in Ghana and other developing countries.
Emmanuel strongly believes pursuing the Master of Science in Forestry program will equip him with the requisite knowledge, skills and expertise, and nurture him into the research scientist and lecturer he aspires to be. He is confident it will further enhance his competence in the development and implementation of sustainable, scientifically based strategies for forest and natural resources management.
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Tolulope Afolabi
Faculty of Forestry
Tolu is described as intelligent, diligent and eager by her supervisors. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in Nigeria in Forestry and Wood Technology and graduated as the best student in her class.
Tolu has taken part in various experiences which further fueled her passion for Forestry and wanting to be part of the solution for Nigeria and Africa. These experiences include not only her studies and the field work involved, but also her industrial training at the Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), as well as the attending the first conference of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, Nigeria Chapter on Forestry in Nigeria. Tolu intends to contribute in meeting both the intellectual and social needs of her country by educating more people around the importance of forests. Tolu is enthusiastic about pursuing her Masters of Science in Forestry at the University of British Columbia because of the capacity, technology and resources available at UBC to deepen her knowledge in the field. Her future goal is to build a career in the Environmental and Natural Resources sector.
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Samuel Ayanleye
Faculty of Forestry
Sam describes himself as a passionate youth with strong interests in agricultural development, environmental conservation, values-based leadership, and community development. Sam’s dedication to helping communities through improving their livelihood led him to join numerous community organizations and NGOs, such as the Nigerian Environmental Conservation Organization, Nigerian Society for Environmental Conservation, Nigeria Young Professionals for Agricultural Development, Gemstone Nation Builders Network, and Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network. He is also a Core Member of ProtectOzone which is focused on improving the livelihood of marginalized people in Nigeria and the Africa continent. This zeal for giveback also drove him to co-found his own initiative committed to forestry education, climate change campaigns, tree tagging and agroforestry, called Edenworld Initiative.
Sam chose UBC for its hi-tech facilities and renowned forestry and wood science disciplines. He believes his pursuit of the MSc in Wood Science will allow him to explore and work with the newest technologies in wood science for research, and will help him comprehend how wood can be appreciated, managed and used as a pathway for fair and sustainable development. His research will focus on the application of Non-destructive technologies in evaluating the properties of Softwoods in North America. He will be using Non-destructive technologies like Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Stress wave technology in predicting the properties of Popular Softwoods (Western hemlock and Douglas-fir) in North America and understand how these technologies can be beneficial to the wood industry. Ultimately, Sam wants to be part of the solution for many problems facing his home country of Nigeria and the African continent as a whole.
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Disann Katende
Faculty of Medicine
Disan would describe himself as resilient, versatile, dynamic, and friendly. His extensive field experience in emergency nutrition responses, maternal and child nutrition, has taught Disan to appreciate the spirit of give-back and its impact on the lives of others. This same spirit led him to co- found Apt Nutriconsult- a consulting firm dedicated to fighting hunger and malnutrition by empowering the most vulnerable communities with best practices on WASH, optimal nutrition, and sustainable land use. Disan believes Sub-Saharan Africa needs reliable public health leadership to provide multi-sectorial approaches including sustainable land and water management to eradicate malnutrition. Through the Master of Public Health program at UBC, he intends to broaden his understanding of the intricate relationship between the environment, health and nutrition in the etiology and prevention of diseases. He describes UBC as a multi-cultural and collaborative ecosystem with a rich history of excellence in academics and scientific research thus a hot spot for innovations.
Upon graduation, Disan aspires to use his skills to strengthen health and nutrition governance as well as the technical capacity of local authorities in rural areas to improve maternal, newborn and child health through nutrition and food security. This will entail; monitoring famine early warning systems and guiding timely corrective action to avert the severity and crisis from anticipated food scarcity. Additionally, he hopes to support hunger prone communities to establish robust nutrition surveillance systems that allow for; timely active case finding and referral of malnourished patients for rehabilitation, thus reducing linked deaths and illnesses.
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Chidubem Ekpereamaka Okechukwu
Faculty of Medicine
Chidubem (Dubem) is a trained medical doctor whose passion was sparked after witnessing the impact the lack of medical doctors had in her community. She obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), where she volunteered with organizations that provide free health services to rural communities. During her undergraduate studies, she served as the Vice President of Medix Frontiers, UNN chapter, leading campaigns to provide free basic health services to these underserved communities. More recently, Dubem led a team of healthcare professionals to provide basic medical services including screening and early detection of some common ailments such as malaria, and diabetes in a rural community in Southwestern Nigeria.
Dubem believes that the interdisciplinary approach to community engagement coupled with the qualitative and quantitative approaches that Masters in Public Health at the University of British Columbia provides, will empower her with the skills and knowledge to effectively navigate and proffer solutions to the problem of poor healthcare and female genital mutilation. Dubem is particularly excited about the hands-on training approach to public health at UBC. She hopes to acquire knowledge to contribute to drafting a well-rounded and ethically-sound national protocol aimed at improving the health outcome of the poor. Dubem is excited to join the community of outstanding scholars and change makers in one of the world’s best universities. She is excited to learn how Canada has been able to improve and maintain its excellent public health indices over the years and how to prepare herself to contribute to change in Africa.
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Abdifatah Abdi
Faculty of Education
Abdifatah graduated in 2011 from the Islamic University of Technology (IUT) in Bangladesh with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Education in Computer Science and Information Technology. Since then, he has been a lecturer and teacher at various institutions in science-based courses. He worked with the Union of Somali Teacher Advocacy Development on a teacher training project and had the opportunity to volunteer with international organizations such as the Red Cross and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to distribute food, clean water, shelter and medicine to displaced people in refugee camps in the city of Mogadishu. Such unique involvements led him to start thinking about solutions involving basic education for children in his community.
Abdifatah believes that a Master of Education in Science Education from the University of British Columbia will help refine his existing leadership skills and build upon his current fundamental knowledge of Environmental Education. Abdifatah’s career goals involve poverty reduction, sustainable development and curriculum development. He is committed to establishing the first ever teacher training center in Somalia whereby all new teachers are trained with the required education and skills to succeed in their teaching duties. One of his long term goals is to provide basic education to children with disabilities (blind and deaf) in Somalia by establishing the first ever school of its kind for these children in Somalia by 2022. Abdifatah is also keen on establishing the first ever environmental education awareness Non-Governmental Organization in Somalia with an aim to increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues. He hopes that through this initiative, the public will remain informed and equipped with the necessary skills to take responsible action.
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Adolphus Bassey
Sauder School of Business
Adolphus is described as cheerful, respectful, tenacious, innovative, and humble. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the American University of Nigeria in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering. He is passionate about technology and learning new ways to be innovative evident in his community involvement. In college, he wrote code for Mobile Doctor; a mobile and web application that provides health and maternity care tips and consultation forums as an alternative avenue for medical consultation. He recently started volunteering at an initiative called Visit a Hospital Today where he contributed to raising funds to assist patients in selected rural areas in Lagos state with their hospital bills. He also volunteers at Aquaphil Foundation, a family owned charity initiative to help rehabilitate educational institutions in the community of Odukpani, Cross River State, Nigeria. In the past few years, he has contributed to building a high school in the hometown of Odukpani, Cross River State to improve access to education.
Adolphus hopes to apply his experience at Sauder to grow Codaas Tech, a software development house focused on providing technical solutions to address healthcare, security and other problems common in Africa. Leveraging Sauder’s global alumni network, he plans to navigate the African market to introduce Codaas Tech’s pioneer project, AutoDoc – an application that connects car owners with auto-repairers in order to address the security issues that stem from inaccessibility of mechanics. He believes Sauder’s MBA would equip him with business strategies and leadership skills which will be instrumental in achieving his dreams.
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Mtise Mwanza
Sauder School of Business
From a young age, Mtise realized that health is the most critical element to progress and vitality in life. Through various childhood experiences and disparities in her community, her interest in ensuring health, especially women’s health, developed. Mtise’s interests led her to pursue an undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College in Biochemistry with a certificate in Culture, Health and Science. Her dream is to alleviate health burdens by building and managing a healthcare venture focusing on reproductive and sexual health in her home country of Zambia. She is confident that an MBA at UBC will provide her with the guidance and support to develop skills needed to build creative solutions to Zambia’s health challenges. According to Mtise, UBC develops principled innovative world-changers and she is determined to become one of them.
Mtise is looking forward to enjoying Vancouver’s beautiful landscape by visiting UBC’s Botanical Garden and taking on the Grouse Grind. To satisfy her love for organic and fresh food nutrition, she is also anticipating many visits to farmers’markets. Mtise is excited to meet her diverse MBA cohort, going on hikes and experiencing Vancouver’s local cuisine. She is looking forward to participating in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship club and utilizing technology to improve lives in Africa and beyond.
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Balanding Manneh
Faculty of Medicine
Balanding has made a life-long commitment to getting more knowledgeable on the topics of malnutrition, hunger, and disease. Balanding is a recent graduate of Arizona State University, where he pursed an honors degree in Biological Sciences (Genetics, Cell, and Developmental Biology) and a minor in Sustainability. He is described by his supervisors as being immensely talented, hardworking, and passionate. His strong commitment to alleviate poverty and hunger stems from his personal experience growing up in the Gambia. This motivated him to get heavily involved in various projects and organizations as well as establish his own organization in 2014 focused on helping rural farmers in the Gambia fight hunger and poverty through agriculture, called Rural Impact. In recognition of his effort, Balanding was awarded the President William Jefferson Clinton Global Hunger Leadership Award by Stop Hunger Now in 2016.
In pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) at UBC, Balanding hopes to explore and understand how to better promote and contribute to the public health sector in his community and around the world. He is looking forward to participating in a practicum which will give him a chance to apply the concepts and theories learned in the classroom.
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Samuel Adeyanju
Faculty of Forestry
Despite the distraction of financial hardship, Samuel performed at the highest level in each stage of his education, allowing him to “see a glorious future ahead coupled with his passion, hard work and commitment to achieve greatness.” In addition to his commitment to academics, Samuel also involves himself with community service through his role as the founder and lead volunteer of his own NGO, Pace Impact Initiative. In the past year, this organization has been able to train 200 young people in two communities on academic excellence, leadership and skill acquisition, allowing participants to leverage their knowledge and skills to impact their communities. Samuel believes that the biggest impacts come from educating youth with real world skills; as a result, he has committed his time outside of the Pace Impact Initiative to volunteer with other NGOs that focus on leadership, youth capacity building, rural development and entrepreneurship – areas where he finds passion.
Samuel aspires to build a career in the environmental and natural resources sectors. His MSc research thesis will be looking at specific problems associated with forest policy in Nigeria and ultimately offer solutions to such problems through facilitating consultations with all stakeholders in the forestry sector. As he prepares for his time at UBC, he reminds himself that there are bound to be distractions, difficulties or discouragement along the way; however, only those who persist in the pursuit of their dreams will achieve greatness.
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Adewole Timilehin Adesoji
Faculty of Forestry
Adewole is best described as an intelligent, reserved, and resilient individual. He graduated as the best student in his class from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Resources Management. Over the years, Adewole has been an active member of the Junior Chamber International where service to humanity is at its best. His industrial training at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria and National Center for genetic resources and Biotechnology gave him more insights into the practice of Forestry which fueled his passion for sustainable management of Forests in Nigeria, Africa, and the World. Belonging to professional organizations like the Forestry association of Nigeria, International Forestry Students Association, African Forest Forum and volunteering in NGO’s like the Northern Initiative for promotion and renaissance value, his desire to be an icon of change in the Forestry sector of Nigeria and Africa, hence, pursuing a Master’s degree in Sustainable Forest Management.
Adewole is very excited about studying and obtaining a master’s degree at UBC due to the world class forestry education provided. He looks forward to meeting and exchanging ideas with the Forestry intellectuals in his pathway of becoming an icon in Forestry discipline.
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Ademola Victor Adebayo
Faculty of Forestry
Victor describes himself as a young, talented, and hardworking scholar who creates great passion for excellence in all his endeavours irrespective of the surrounding challenges and pressures. He obtained his Bachelor’s in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Federal University of Agriculture and ranked as the only first-class honors student. His earnest desire for impacting and contributing positively to his community stimulated his passion for leadership and extra-curriculum activities. These activities include tutoring and mentorship to students aspiring to improve in academic performance. A recent project he took over and gracefully spearheaded, is a non-profit called ‘Tree Planting Ambassadors (TPA)’. The group embarked on tree planting, training and sensitization projects on desertification control and distribution of free seedlings in various communities in Sokoto state.
Victor’s ultimate career goal is to become a Professor in the field of Forestry in Nigeria. Furthermore, he has plans to create a non- governmental group that would be actively committed in creating awareness on the need for forest resources conservation. He believes that pursuing a Masters degree in Sustainable Forest Management will not only help him achieve his long term goal, but will also furnish him with necessary skills and knowledge on forest resource conservation, environmental management, forest ecology and climate change control. Furthermore, it will help him to enhance sustainable forest management as well as mitigating the devastating effects of climate change due to over-exploitation of environmental resources. Victor is eager to learn about people’s cultures and lifestyles during his stay in Vancouver.
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Goodness Eniola Adesokan
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Goodness is a young graduate from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in Nigeria where she studied Agricultural and Resource Economics. She describes herself as resilient, assiduous, optimistic, and selfless. Throughout her time at FUTA, she was actively involved in various activities some of which include the Debate Club, Read to Impact Initiative, Pace Impact Initiative, and Face of Agriculture. According to Goodness, pursuing a Master’s Degree in Food and Resource Economics is a step in the right direction to pursuing her long-term objective of joining The Food and Agriculture Organization and leading a spirited team focused on increased agricultural production through harnessing the resources of rural communities in Nigeria and transforming them into revenue for the communities.
She is most excited about the opportunity to study in a University populated by people with rich cultural backgrounds, outstanding facilities and holistic teaching as she believes these will help her personal and professional development. Goodness enjoys reading, debating and finding ways to help others. She hopes to join various clubs whilst at UBC to further her passions and develop her talents.
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Adeola Alle
Faculty of Forestry
Adeola holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria. It is here he came in contact first-hand with problems of inadequate qualitative and quantitative housing and standard of living data in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He also came to realize that achieving a better society, where equal opportunities are made available for everyone, regardless of their socio-cultural or ethnic background, is achievable through dialogue and quality engagements amongst intelligent minds. Adeola’s desire to be part of the solution is what motivates him to pursue the Master of Geomatics for Environmental Management at the University of British Columbia. Whilst at UBC, he hopes to acquire advanced knowledge in a specialized field of Geomatics for Environmental Management, especially under the themes of resilience and socioecological perspectives. Upon completing the MGEM program, he intends to become a sustainability consultant who specializes in using geospatial data in proffering solutions to waste and waste water management issues.
Above all, Adeola is extremely excited to nurture his passion and talent for debate by getting involved in the UBC Debate Society. He is eager to learn with and from the diverse UBC students, faculty and other Mastercard Scholars.
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Samuel Arawu
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Passionate, excellent, determined, ambitious and honest, are just a few words that can be used to describe Arawu. Having grown up in Nigeria, he has witnessed the increasing rate of diabetes cancer and obesity. Arawu’s ultimate goal is to help the poor gain access to quality food, to reduce the disease rate and enhance the lives of Nigerians, and eventually, all Africans. This fueled his interest in pursuing a Masters in Food Science at UBC as he believes it will help him solve the problem of fake food products in Nigeria. In the near future, Arawu hopes to become an accomplished researcher, an asset in decision & policy making in Nigeria’s development process, establish a nutritional-genetic research laboratory in Lagos, and win the Nobel Prize in Health through Innovation along the way.
Arawu is looking forward to the vast multiculturalism that Vancouver nurtures, and connecting with the outstanding faculty, staff, and colleagues that UBC has to offer.
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Olatunbosun Ayetan
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Bosun is described by his supervisors as having a great drive for success as well as being exceptionally intelligent, hardworking, innovative and capable of analytical reasoning. He holds a Bachelor of Agriculture and Technology, in Crop, Soil and Pest Management from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria. During his industrial training at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 2016, he gained practical experience and theoretical knowledge on plant genetics, plant breeding and biotechnology which matured his desire to build a career in the agricultural and educational sector. Bosun has chosen to pursue a Master of Land and Water Systems at the University of British Columbia to develop the skills and capacity necessary to carry out successful research and contribute to the current body of knowledge in this field. He believes that this program will further position him to propose realistic solutions to some of the problems facing the agricultural sector in Nigeria. He is excited to be a part of UBC’s well- equipped experimental and computational facilities.
Bosun is thrilled to be part of UBC’s multicultural community and exchange ideas with students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. He looks forward to gaining invaluable knowledge in and outside the classroom.
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Samuel Makinde
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
From a young age, Samuel developed a high interest in reading, teaching and competition. He graduated with First Class with a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Nigeria (FUTA). Samuel’s passion for learning and teaching encouraged him to join various youth development organizations to offer teaching and tutoring services in his community. Through his Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Adefolorunsho (Tech.) Ventures, Nigeria, he learned how to operate, diagnose and solve problems of machines used in PET bottle production. In 2016, Samuel organized youths in his community to combat malaria infestation and environmental diseases through which he created his non-profit Operation Clean the Environment (OCE). This NGO seeks to clean and educate the youth on preventative measures against malaria. Sam sees himself as a Global citizen with an interest in environmental engineering, food security, hydro technical engineering, groundwater hydrology, water/watershed management, municipal water supply and water policies.
Samuel believes that Masters of Land and Water Systems from the University of British Columbia will help him play a vital role in solving problems of land degradation caused by tillage activities, food insecurity, low water quantity & quality in Nigeria and the world. After graduation, he hopes to work as a researcher and engineer in Nigeria to give back and enhance global development at large. Samuel is excited to feel the serenity of the green environment in Vancouver as well as to study in the modern facilities available for learning and researching at UBC.
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Oloruntobi Muniru
Faculty of Forestry
Tobi is very passionate about ensuring sustainable development in Africa through good forest management. During her undergraduate education, she focused on encouraging indigenous people (especially youth) to participate in managing and rejuvenating existing forests, practice agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture through her involvement with several Agriculture NGO’s in Nigeria. In 2017, she was the program coordinator for the symposium “Deforestation and Climate change, our concern?” organized by the Nigeria Society for Environmental Conservation, FUTA chapter. The program educated 80 young farmers and entrepreneurs in agriculture about how deforestation and climate change affects the agricultural sector, and the ideal response to climate change issues.
Tobi states “to get solutions to problems, one has to think globally and act locally”. She believes a Master’s degree in Sustainable Forest Management at UBC will help broaden her horizon such that when she returns to Africa, she would be able to offer relevant solutions to problems in forest management and give more informed knowledge about sustainable agriculture to farmers. Tobi is most excited about coming to a city where nature is kept at its best.
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Ebere Mercy Okafor
Faculty of Forestry
Mercy is a research enthusiast and describes herself as being diligent, honest, and easy going. She recently graduated from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in Nigeria with a degree in Forestry and Wood Technology. During her final year, she had the opportunity to travel around Nigerian states for ecological assessment of various vegetation types. There, her interest in forestry and remote sensing was kindled and her enthusiasm to contribute to her immediate community grew. She wants to acquire forest management skills and knowledge as she believes that forestry sector in her country needs to be restructured to accommodate new ideas that would ensure sustainable use of available forest resources. For these reasons, she chose to pursue a Master’s degree in Geomatics for Environmental Management at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
While at UBC, Mercy looks forward to exchanging ideas and learning from her peers, faculty, and staff to help her grow as a forester and as a leader. She looks forward to engaging in intercultural experiences and discovering the natural beauty of Vancouver and British Columbia.
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Adekunle James Omoboye
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Excellence, Mentorship, Determination, Dexterity and Integrity are the major key words suitable to describe the personality of James. He is a First Class Graduate from Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Nigeria where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Chemistry. He has a strong background in Food Chemistry and Food Analysis which has fully furnished him with requisite skills needed for his Masters in Food Science. After graduation, he worked with a vibrant team of researchers on a project “feasibility of incorporating Africa Locust beans into Children staples”, and the research recommends viable means through which protein malnutrition can be addressed amongst African children locally. He has also worked with Deshalom Food Company as a Quality Control intern where he gained top-notch transferable skills. James has been involved in several leadership and community development programmes. Few of such are when he served as the Academic Director of an interdenominational fellowship where he coordinated and organised academic seminars for about 250 students. More so, he served in a community that is about 1000km from his home town for 12 months in 2017 and contributed to the growth and development of the community at various capacities.
James hopes to maximize his time at the University of British Columbia to learn, explore and translate garnered experience to influence the world in the future. More so, he hopes to acquire technical knowhow and soft skills that would prepare him for a career in academia and industry through his Master of Food Science. He is excited to experience the power of collaboration through sharing and exchange of ideas with his cohort to identify and chart a new course for eradicating Malnutrition, Food Safety and Post Harvest losses in Africa and the world at large.
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Espoir Tuyisenge
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Espoir is a recent graduate of Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Food Industry Management and a minor in Agribusiness and Environmental Sustainability. Having grown up in an area surrounded with malnutrition, food shortages and poverty, he observed first-hand how dependent his community is on agriculture as a primary source of income. This has driven his interest to become a steward of successful African agriculture and food industry. During his undergraduate program, he was heavily involved in research focused on the latter. He has chosen to pursue a graduate program in Food and Resource Economics at the University of British Columbia as he believes it would grant him the opportunity to engage in research on the advanced systems in Food and Economic Resources. Espoir is confident in UBC’s supportive research environment and strong academic support systems. He is determined to return to Sub Saharan Africa and use his experience and research to advocate and help many smallholder farmers. He is interested in research that would study the economic implications for farmer investment in value- added business. He envisions sustainable agriculture production, food and nutrition security on the African continent.
Espoir is most excited to meet people, experience Canadian culture, and explore UBC’s world-class resources and opportunities. He would like to continue to engage progressively in new challenges and being open to new experiences.
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Ransford Danny Kofi Buah
Master of Sustainable Forest Management
Faculty of Forestry
Because of the financial hardships he experienced, Kofi has developed a concern for those who live in deprived communities and do not have the privilege of education. He envisages himself as a “philanthropist to bring smiles on the faces of poor underprivileged people in Ghana and Africa.”
Kofi believes that every successful achievement requires a great amount of determination. His career goal is to become a development-oriented conservation activist, working with research-based groups in the fields of forest and biodiversity conservation, as a way of improving the economy of Ghana and Africa, while ensuring sustainability. The Master of Sustainable Forest Management Program interests him because it focuses on placing conservation attention on forest resources. Motivated by the devastating decrease in Ghana’s natural resources, he is determined to ensure that the forest resources are managed sustainably.
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Abia Katimbo
Master of Land and Water Systems
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Abia is very passionate about helping communities through the provision of solutions using his engineering and interpersonal skills. After completing his undergraduate degree, Abia was recruited as a research assistant at Makerere University to work at Smallholder Fortunes & Thermogenn on a project which helps to understand the market milk value chain in Uganda and also develops milk preservation technologies for smallholder farmers. Working as a research and development engineer, his team developed a unique innovation branded “EvaKuula”, allowing farmers to preserve their milk for longer periods and as a result, doubling their incomes from milk sales. Through interactions with the EvaKuula adopting community, Abia realized that a successful solution is a solution which transforms people’s lives.
Abia loves his country and communities; he is driven by his desire to help people who need solutions for the problems they are experiencing. After his journey through Northern Uganda, Abia realized that the region is always struck by long and recurrent drought periods due to climate change, without any adaptation strategies put in place to overcome the impacts. Abia plans to pursue a Masters of Land and Water Systems in order to enable him to bring new innovations to this region and aid in the well-being of both people and livestock in this area.
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Nkem Melaugha
Full-time MBA
Sauder School of Business
Nkem’s passion for giving back has always been one of her strengths. For volunteer work, she served on a records team that took the information of children in slums who were not in school. These records served as a database for the Slum to School project team in order to seek sponsorships for these children. She also volunteered as a part time accountant at the Irede Foundation, an NGO which provides prostheses for children born with disabilities or who had to have their limbs amputated. From 2013 to date, as part of her personal give back to the community, she assisted small business owners with their everyday business needs for free, specifically in the areas of accounting and finance, marketing and sales, ICT and customer care. Most recently, Nkem worked as an accountant with GTI Microfinance Bank where she linked small business owners to micro and medium term loans. For Nkem, her professional and personal achievements are intertwined.
Nkem is excited about the opportunity to learn in an environment that not only teaches entrepreneurship and leadership but goes further to link this on a global level. She plans on using her degree to pursue a career as a SME consultant, one who would use this knowledge gained in forming a consultancy for those who need professional business advice and services at an affordable fee. Nkem full heartedly believes in the possibility of Nigeria rising up to be recognized for its industrial, economic, political and socio-cultural activities in the world. She plans to be part of this change in her country and is excited to have the MasterCard Foundation as her ally.
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Monicah Namu
Master in Food Science
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Monicah’s determination to conquer the world can be proven by her continuous academic excellence as an Equity Group Foundation Scholar in Kenya. The most important thing to her is changing the world and for Africa to become a better place for mankind in food security and safety. Monicah is interested in agricultural research, food safety, quality assurance and risk analysis.
In December 2012, Monicah realized there was a need for action to mitigate the rate of school drop outs and co-founded a youth group by the name MAKE (Mithanduku-ini Aspiration for Knowledge Empowerment). Through her work with MAKE, Monicah realized her passion for academics and has since mentored students in her home village, offered career guidance and acted as a motivational speaker.
Monicah is pursuing a Masters in Food Science at UBC in order to be in the forefront of academia as a career and to train other Kenyans on the dangers of food poisoning. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and is looking forward to venturing into the Kenyan food industry to ensure food quality is never compromised. She plans to partner her degree with giving back to the community through conducting feeding programs to increase food security during times of drought and famine.
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Olivier Ntwali
Master in Food and Resource Economics
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Olivier comes from a small family farm in the Gatsibo district in Rwanda. Olivier has always been passionate about community development and making positive changes in his society. During his studies at university, Olivier co-founded the National University of Rwanda Agribusiness Association (NURAAS) and as President, created the “After University Program” linking students of agriculture with organizations and government institutions for internships opportunities and career development. In 2013, through joining the Rwanda Organization for Agribusiness Promotion (ROAP), Olivier mentored 25 agricultural cooperatives on farmer entrepreneurship, effective farming practices, and environmental education. In 2015, Olivier came to the realization that rural areas were filled with untapped opportunities and as a result, equipped youth with the tools to help them unlock their opportunities.
Olivier is excited about the opportunity to come to UBC to get a chance to interact with students from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds. He has experienced firsthand that effort does not always equal return in subsistence farming. Olivier plans to pursue a degree in Master of Food Resource Economics in order to establish an entrepreneurship hub in Rwanda where he will empower and equip local and youth entrepreneurs with business skills and link them to potential investors and financial institutions.
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Bamidele Folorusho Oni
Master in International Forestry
Faculty of Forestry
Bamidele is a “tireless teacher and generous with his kindness, working hard to engender a sense of pragmatic stewardship in rural peoples.” After founding an NGO in 2011, Bamidele became a state coordinator for the Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria and a regional representative of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance. Through this experience, he has developed strong communication and collaboration skills working in partnership with international nonprofits including Plant for the Planet in Germany, Viola in Russia and locally with the Walter Carrington Youth Fellowship Program of the United States Consulate in Nigeria.
In April 2016, Bamidele coordinated the Step–up Green Initiative, to inform young students across major secondary schools of the impacts of climate change and ecosmart technologies. The goal was to empower youth to be focal points of change within their schools and respective homes while setting an example of how their choices and lifestyles can make a long-term difference. This project allowed Bamidele to create a platform that brought together youth, non-profit institutions, academics and policy makers in ensuring a landmark achievement in eco-sustainable practices.
Bamidele has been building himself a career path molded by international perspectives on forestry and environment. He plans to pursue a Masters in International Forestry in order to improve his scope on international forest policies, governance and especially in the area of diplomacy and negotiation engagements.
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Adebusola Deborah Oyenuga
Master in Food and Resource Economics
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Growing up in an immediate family of five in the remote and quiet town of Ilaro, Nigeria, Debbie learned the virtues of humanitarianism and leadership from her parents. These virtues ignited a desire to be in a role that allowed her to assist people and empower people towards a path of self-worth and self-sufficiency. Throughout her life, she states that she has had multiple experiences that have taught her “life is like a boomerang, our actions today always catch up with us in the future and a good turn deserves another”. Debbie’s major drive for her personal goals is the need to empower people for sustainability.
Most recently, she was a member and facilitator for the Agro-allied community development service (CDS) group of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program. She organized sensitization sessions for students and establishes young farmers’ clubs in secondary schools in her community through educating farmers in seminars and practical sessions.
The Master of Food Resource and Economics program interests Debbie due to its broad based professional approach. She hopes to gain knowledge, skills and experience that are necessary for solving real problems in the food and resource sectors. She plans to use her degree to help her develop an ability to make the right economic decisions, review various approaches that engender food security, and understand the dynamics of food and resource markets.
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Vivian Onwujiobi
Full-time MBA
Sauder School of Business
After changing career paths from a doctor to a Software Developer, Vivian has dedicated herself to supporting women by providing them with software solutions, free consultations and networking opportunities.
During the most recent Nigerian elections, Vivian volunteered to join an independent election orientation group, Let’s Vote Nigeria and was appointed as the spokesperson for Isolo constituency. The organization went to different social and religious gatherings to request time slots to address different audiences. She was able to organize street to street seminars where she analyzed the election predictions and the possibilities of its success and failure, informing attendees on the importance of the election processes, the role of electorates and the need to exercise civic rights. As a result, the elections in her constituency recorded a nonviolent, organized and massive turnout of eligible voters, most of whom Vivian recognized from the seminars.
Vivian is interested in studying at UBC because she believes it will help her think like an entrepreneur and give her a well-rounded business view of software development management. As a software developer, Vivian wants to encourage female entrepreneurs at the grass root level to embrace technology in carrying out their business activities. She aims to help small scale business women in her country succeed and compete with their counterparts across the world, and she hopes that UBC will be a key player in helping her achieve that dream.
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Fulu Koali
Full-time MBA
Sauder School of Business
Fulu was a strong innovator throughout his high school years and had a knack for applying academic theories to complex problems. Fulu scored particularly well in Science and Mathematics which led him to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the National University of Lesotho. Fulu excelled in his undergraduate studies and received several awards, including best third year and best graduating student awards in his department.
Following his undergraduate studies, Fulu developed a passion for leadership and management programmes as he recognized the potential impact strong leaders can have on the development of his country. Fulu notes that there is a shortage of business leadership and management expertise in Lesotho and believes the Master of Business Administration at UBC will be instrumental in helping him achieve his goal of establishing a business consultancy firm. His aim is to provide African citizens with business management and leadership skills at an affordable cost with the hopes that this will make a substantial impact on the economic growth and development in Lesotho.
Outside of his studies, Fulu currently volunteers as an event coordinator of a local soccer tournament in his community that aims to unite and strengthen relationships between residents and to keep youth engaged and off the streets. -
Oladimeji John Adewusi
Master of Food Science
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Oladimeji has always had a passion for learning and took his academic work very seriously. Throughout his teenage years in high school in Nigeria, Oladimeji was particularly strong in organic chemistry and biology. Oladimeji took his love for teaching and science to the Federal University of Technology where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science and graduated in the top 1% of his class. His final year research project found that the level of antioxidant potential of mango wine improved with the seed and leaves of the Moringa Oleifera.
Outside of academics Oladimeji is involved in a local community project around food security. As an active member of Agro-Allied Community Development Service Group (a voluntary and non-profit body), Oladimeji was appointed as the assistant project coordinator for this project.
Oladimeji is excited to start his Master of Food Science as the program is a key step for him in achieving his long term career and personal goals. Oladimeji plans to use his MFS training to improve the nutritional value of cassava, to combat the issue of nutrition deficiency. Upon his return to home to Nigeria, Oladimeji plans to find work as graduate research assistant working in food security.
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Josephine Sintim-Poku
Masters of Sustainable Forest Management
Faculty of Forestry
Josephine was determined to study as school was the one place she found the most happiness and a sense of belonging. Josephine was admitted into one of Ghana’s top universities, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and completed a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources Technology. Driven by her passion for meaningful community service, Josephine served as an interviewer for a household survey component of a study that was designed to assess the economic value of key ecosystem services, notably water provided by the Atewa Forest in Ghana. The outcomes of this project would contribute to the decision making process, and improve protection of the Atewa forest while working towards a government led process to change the protection status of the Forest Reserve into a National Park.
The decision to study the Master of Sustainable Forest Management at the University of British Columbia underlines her desire to be a part of an education system that has a long standing tradition of comprehensive research-based teaching and learning. The MSFM program will offer Josephine the ideal platform to specialize in knowledge-specific forestry practices. Josephine’s career aspiration after the course is to work with research based groups in forestry and nature conservation, to improve research and enhance environmental sustainability to protect and empower the poor. Josephine has a passion to give back to society and her priority is to honour all the support and help she has received so far by becoming a renowned researcher and conservation activist as well as to start a non-profit organization that will offer support to young girls.
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Charles Mungwakuzwe
Master of Land and Water Systems
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
In 2017, Charles graduated from the Master of Land and Water System at the University of British Columbia and holds BSc in Civil Engineering. Throughout his studies, Charles has always thrived for excellence; he believed that it was not only a choice but also a key and a must for great opportunities such as a life changing UBC MCF Scholarship.
After completing his BSc degree, Charles worked as a district engineer for Gasabo district; one of the districts in Kigali City, the capital City of the country of thousand hills in the heart of Africa (Rwanda). Since 2015, Charles has been actively engaged in youth empowerment and advocating for youth participation in decision making through SOS Children’s Village International -2030 Youth Coalition which is made up with youth from different countries. In 2016, Charles was elected to be the spokesperson of the Coalition.
Now, that Charles has accrued sufficient knowledge from a world class University, he is determined to contribute his skills wholeheartedly to address the emerging environmental issues regarding climate change, land and water resources management. Charles’s biggest dream is to contribute his skills to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), because he believes that access to safe water and affordable sanitation are essential for human health, healthy ecosystems and sustainable development.
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Grace Sarbeng
Master of International Forestry
Faculty of Forestry
From a young age, Grace was known for planting trees around her home. She developed a passion for environmental issues because the local river and forest area in her village was being depleted to make way for agriculture development. Her desire to see the environment in her community maintained led her down an academic path of general science throughout her secondary education. Grace’s passion for the environment led her to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources Management. Some of Grace’s work during her undergraduate degree focused on wildfire management and included a week-long wildfire education project in Tepa Abonsuaso, a forest fringe community where she has spent the early part of her childhood. The goal of the project was to inform people about the causes, effects, dangers as well as possible remedies of wildfires.
Grace has noted that the urgency to curtail the negative backlashes of natural resource depletion has depended on professionals who have the knowledge and experience to sensitize and educate the general public on sustainable natural resources management. Grace believes that the Master of International Forestry program will provide her with the knowledge and skills to tackle two important environmental issues she is passionate about – nature conservation in city environments as well as the increasing risk of wildfires in Ghana. -
Alfred Acheampong
Master of Land and Water Systems
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Alfred Baafi Acheampong is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar, Environmental Systems professional, and an Entrepreneur. Alfred holds a Master’s degree in Land and Water Systems from the University of British Columbia, Canada as well as a Bsc. Forestry with Land Reclamation and Rehabilitation specialty from KNUST, Ghana. His areas of specialty encompass Land Reclamation, Ecological Restoration, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining, Watershed Management, Forestry, Youth leadership and Capacity Building. Alfred’s Passion for Environmental Sustainability has been expressed on public speaking platforms such as Walrus Talks, International Development Week of Canada and the Global Scholars Network, Canada. As the Co Founder of LaRECS, He aims to create an ecosystem of young professionals who leverages the coordination between academia, industries and local communities to address emerging environmental challenges. Alfred currently serves on the board of Green Impact International- an eco-smart NGO which aims to create awareness and build the capacity youths to address emerging climate change problems. Much more importantly, He loves to spend quality time with kids!
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Jonathan Awineboma Abagre
Master of Sustainable Forestry Management
Faculty of Forestry
Jonathan has been dedicated to natural resources management since he was a child. Hard working and forward-thinking, he went above and beyond to finish high school and develop a strong foundation for his academic career. To fund his post-secondary education, he worked in the informal timber sector of Ghana – an experience that sparked his strong passion for stopping illegal timber trade in Ghana. Jonathan continued to successfully master two highly complex duties: striving for outstanding outcomes within his undergraduate studies while working to support himself and dependent family members. His efforts paid off and he excelled academically. In 2012 he earned his BSc in Natural Resource Management from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. His outstanding undergraduate thesis was awarded with the Tropenbos International Scholarship. Jonathan is constantly working on increasing his knowledge and the professional skills that will enable him to effectively contribute to natural resources management and policy formulation with a strong focus on forestry in his home country. His experience working as a researcher and project officer for Tropenbos International, his work as an assistant technical officer at the forestry commission branch office in Accra, and his experience working for mining companies in Ghana in combination with graduate studies and his passion for the forest form the perfect basis for his long-term success. Currently, Jonathan is enrolled in a Master of Sustainable Forest Management at UBC and jointly owns a data analysis consult (JONABI data analysis) with his friend back in Ghana.
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Priscilla Boadi
Master of International Forestry
Faculty of Forestry
Priscilla was born and raised in the Southern part of Ghana and is a proud recipient of the MasterCard Foundation Scholarship. She discovered her passion for women empowerment, poverty alleviation and other food security related issues while studying her Masters degree at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Priscilla had an opportunity to explore more into the field of food security when she had an internship with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy and volunteered with the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada.
Priscilla is currently a PhD. Student at McGill University, Canada and will be exploring ways of integrating the concept of food self-reliance into training models for effective entrepreneurial development among adolescent girls and women in Ghana. Among other interests, she is also concerned with providing better livelihood options for women and the youth, improving food security, and building healthy food systems. Her aim is to combine the knowledge, skills and experience gained from the program to build a career in pursuit of transforming the lives of women and youth found in rural communities globally, in addition to transforming their food systems. Priscilla believes that there is so much potential in women and the youth to change our food systems (and the world as a whole) and she is determined to unlock that potential.
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Maureen Gitata
Master of Food and Resource Economics
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Maureen is a Senior Consultant at Dalberg. She advises companies, governments, foundations and NGOs on strategies that accelerate development for developing economies. She advises clients on a range of strategic areas, including program design, market entry, organisational reform, human-centred design, and impact investing. She has worked across a range of sectors including Global Health, ICT, Financial Inclusion, Gender, Agriculture, Energy, and Education to Employment.
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Isaac Jonas
Master of Food and Resource Economics
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Isaac Jonas is a Ph.D. student at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Isaac holds a Master of Food and Resources Economics (MFRE) degree from UBC where he graduated as a valedictorian and a Mastercard Foundation Scholarship holder in 2015. He also holds a Bsc honors degree from the University of Zimbabwe. Isaac Co-Founded Impact Africa Trust (www.impactafricatrust.org), a Not-for Profit organization that is registered in Zimbabwe, to give back to his community. As a Co-Founder, he also serves as the executive director to the Trust. On his spare time if any is left, he writes and has published his first book, “The Serendipity of a Great Network”. In the book, he traces back his journey from Zimbabwe to Canada where he currently resides with a goal to inspire the next generation.
A global citizen, Isaac has spoken at various local and international forums such as the Skoll World Forum at the Said Business School, Oxford University, England, The University of British Columbia African Business Forum, Canada and the International Monetary Fund – World Bank Group sponsored African Youth Forum in Cote d’Ivoire.
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Patrice Meteunou
Master of Sustainable Forestry Management
Faculty of Forestry
Patrice holds a professional Masters degree in Forest Sciences with a specialization in Auditing and Forest Certification from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon. He has worked as a Program Director in a non-profit organization called APECAM focused on forest and environmental programs and projects. He has also worked with Cameroon Red Cross for ten years where he was a first-aid trainer and Secretary General of a sub-divisional committee in Yaoundé.Between 2010 and 2013, he did consultations in Central Africa on policies and institutional evolution in the forest and environment sector, on forest management, forest and climate change adaptation, and reduction of GHG emission from all land use with international forestry organizations such as CIFOR and ICRAF. Most recently, Patrice has been working assessing a community’s vulnerability and their capacities to reduce disaster risk. Patrice is fluent in both English and French, and travelled to Switzerland in 2011 as a Cameroon Red Cross delegate to participate in the International Youth Workshop on Asylum, Exclusion, and Immigration. He has also been supported by the NEPAD Agency and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) for scientific communication on climate change in South Africa and Senegal.
He is presently a MasterCard Foundation Graduate Scholar in the Faculty of Forestry’s Masters of Sustainable Forest Management at the University of British Columbia where he is acquiring high level training on Sustainable Forest Management.
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Monica Nabaasa
Master of Sustainable Forestry Management
Faculty of Forestry
As a child, Monica was fascinated by nature and understood the fact that forests play a crucial role in the earth’s survival and existence; as a result, it became Monica’s dream to engage in forestry conservation in Uganda. Her undergraduate research project was on the population dynamics of the invasive paper mulberry tree, Broussonetia papyrifera, in Uganda’s largest forest reserve, Budongo Forest. Together with her colleagues, she organized charity collections for communities living around the Budongo Forest. Monica also conducted conservation education in the communities around Budongo Forest encouraging the masses not to kill the wild animals, including chimpanzees when they raid farmers’ crops. She will apply her knowledge and understanding of the tropical forests, as well as their conservation and sustainable utilization, without forgetting forest-dependent communities.
Monica is interested in learning more about sustainable forest management, and hopes that her graduate degree in MSFM at UBC helps her to realize this goal.
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Alesia Ofori
Master of Sustainable Forestry Management
Faculty of Forestry
Alesia is a highly motivated, committed and enthusiastic young lady from Ghana. Being a firm believer in giving back to her society, Alesia devoted herself to community service by joining the Jesse-Rhodes Foundation in creating awareness on hygiene and sanitation, teenage pregnancies, family planning and HIV/AIDS in rural communities in Ghana after completing High School. The program had a profound impact on her as she continues to remain a lifelong mentor to young girls in these communities. During her undergraduate degree at KNUST, she was the President of the Women in Conservation, a group of young women committed to Resource Conservation in Ghana. With the opportunity to study to study Forestry in Finland during her student exchange period, Alesia realized the importance and potential of forest fringe communities in achieving sustainable forest management in developing countries.
Her ultimate career goal is to work in academia as a Professor and a Professional Forester on successful completion of her MSFM degree at UBC. For her PHD studies, she hopes to pursue an interdisciplinary research in Natural Resources Management. Alesia has a soft spot for acting and theater works and also loves to write and blog in her free time.icula ut id elit.
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Aboubakar (Ally) Sekora
Master of Food and Resource Economics
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Ally is the youngest of three brothers and one sister, and has overcome many challenges in his life, including the 1994 Rwandan genocide, to be here. Ally holds a BSc (with honours) in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness from the National University of Rwanda. In 2010, Ally founded the Rwanda Agricultural University Students Union (RWAUSU) with more than 1000 members countrywide. One of the Union’s core activities is to educate farmers about how to practice market-oriented farming and crop production. Now that he has completed his MFRE degree he intends on returning to Rwanda. His interests focus broadly in agribusiness and smallholder farmers. Ally has a particular interest in value chain analysis for improved farmer incomes, employment opportunities and food security.
Ally aspires to contribute to the development of his country by creating a platform that will empower and engage youth to utilize Agri-preneurship (mixture of entrepreneurship and agriculture) which will subsequently tackle rural poverty and youth unemployment issues in Rwanda. He is fluent in English, French and intermediate Turkish and beginner Arabic.
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Florence (Blooming) Soyinka
Master of Business Administration
Sauder School of Business
Blooming is a MasterCard Scholarship recipient and a full time MBA student at the University of British Columbia – Sauder School of Business. She is the Founder of Africa Blooms Co., an online retail store that merchandises products proudly made in Africa locally and globally (www.africablooms.com). Blooming believes that with hard work, persistence and the right partners, investors, and team, together we can positively change the story of the African continent locally and internationally…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to believe in and celebrate Africa. Blooming is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University with a dual degree in Economics & Accounting. Prior to starting her MBA program she worked at MFM – Nigeria as an Internal Auditor and at CNA Insurance, headquartered in Chicago as an Accounting Rotational Business Associate with primary focus on General & Financial Reporting, Accounting Control & Support and Reinsurance. During her undergraduate program she interned at Ernst & Young – Chicago and Midway AG Company – Chicago. As an undergraduate, she excelled academically, and in 2011 she founded the Global Instrument of Change Initiative, a non-profit organization that assists immigrants with finding education and employment opportunities. She organized a conference for over 100 attendees from the US and UK, where students had the opportunity to learn firsthand from their peers as well as business executives.
In addition to her formal education, Blooming reads extensively about other leaders working to change the world, and has travelled across the US to attend events and conferences that continue to motivate and inspire her. Her long term goal is to positively change the African conversation through her group of companies on the African continents.
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Anne Ayomiposi Joseph
Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Anne Joseph is very passionate about her career, profession and life endeavors which have been the foundation of her determination. She’s the 2019 Best Female Graduate of Applied Geology at the Faculty of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) Nigeria. She gained research experience studying the Oredo Oil field, Niger Delta basin and groundwater flow dynamics, Abesan Area, Eastern Dahomey Basin in Nigeria. She has majorly been involved in attending conferences organized by Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and Women in Geosciences and Engineering(WiGE).
She served as the Student Coordinator for WiGE where she organised online programs including quizzes to keep students abreast about the industry. She was also appointed as the General Secretary of NAPE, FUTA chapter. Her team organised the first NAPE summit where they hosted about two thousand students including erudite resource persons in the Industry to discuss contemporary issues about school and the industry. These amazing performances led the department to nominate her for the Competition at the Education Week, International Technology Petroleum Conference held at Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, her team came first at the challenge!
Her decision to pursue Masters of Land and Water Systems was engendered by her unwavering passion to solve ever-increasing global environmental challenges through development of a sustainable and innovative approach for resources management. She looks forward to using the infrastructure and facilities in a serene environment for better learning, high quality of education and research activities during her program in University of British Columbia.