A 22-year-old student of Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo State, Oluwadamilola Akintewe is on the verge of winning this year’s $100, 000 global student prize, which is given to one exceptional student that has made a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond.
Oluwadamilola Akintewe has made the top 10 finalist out of over 3,500 nominations and applications from 94 countries around the world for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2021.
Commenting on Oluwadamilola Akintewe feat, Lila Thomas, Head of Chegg.org, said: “Oluwadamilola and all our finalists represent the courageous and hardworking students all over the world that are fighting for their future. Despite the challenges of COVID, this generation of students have shown the kind of resilience and creativity that give us all hope as we confront the towering challenges ahead. The Global Student Prize has been launched to shine a light on their stories and listen to their voices. After all, it is their dreams and their talents that will light the path to a better tomorrow.”
Oluwadamilola Akintewe was inspired by her humble background to always be committed to improving the lives and empowerment chances of girls and women in Nigeria. She launched LetGirlsLead to provide mentorship and support for secondary school girls in her Ondo home state. Working with youth organizations, they teach girls entrepreneurial, financial and digital skills, so that they may become self-sufficient, and she set up a scholarship list to help them apply for places at universities and gain further qualifications.
She also launched Project Rebirth, which uses entrepreneurial action to deliver financial equality and inclusion for low income and rural women in Ondo. They take business development and financial literacy classes and learn sustainable and eco-friendly fashion design. The 140 women who have been impacted by the Project also get loans to buy sewing machines and launch their own businesses.
Using her growing confidence and connections, she messaged an Instagram model who she noticed supports social impact projects in the global south, pitched Project Rebirth to her and secured a $2,000 grant to deliver the training project to young women participating and directly benefiting. In 2020 her team secured a $3,000 grant from Ford to expand implementation to women in agriculture and food production while combating global scarcity and hunger.
As a former victim of gender-based violence, Oluwadamilola has herself dealt with mental health issues and trauma and is promoting a wider social change through gender advocacy. Reacting to the alarming rate of sexual violence in Nigeria during the pandemic lockdown, with social distancing the new normal she leveraged social media to raise awareness, founding the Forbidden Topics Facebook platform, now with over 1,100 followers, to amplify female voices against social injustices and break the silence.
Volunteering with many global organizations, Oluwadamilola also secured a $2,000 Wishwall Foundation grant to provide internally displaced girls in Northern Nigeria with free digital skills in coding with python, JavaScript, graphics design and digital marketing as income generation to further improve their lives.
Oluwadamilola has won a string of awards, praise and recognition for her work and achievements, including 30 under 30 Changemaker 2021 from Opportunity Desk Impact Challenge as well as the Inaugural winner of the Samantha Singh Memorial Award 2021 from the ONE Campaign and the 2021 Peter Drucker Global Challenge for Leadership.
The Varkey Foundation launched the Chegg.org Global Student Prize earlier this year, a sister award to its $1 million Global Teacher Prize, to create a powerful new platform that shines a light on the efforts of extraordinary students everywhere who, together, are reshaping our world for the better. The prize is open to all students who are at least 16 years old and enrolled in an academic institution or training and skills program. Part time students as well as students enrolled in online courses are also eligible for the prize.
