Five years ago, I embarked on a social venture as a way
of giving back to the society. I was rather young and naive but a distinct and
calm voice in my head kept me awake until I yielded and started. Different
questions ran through my head as to what to do and how to do it?
As a student of engineering, it was expected that I had
no business doing any other stuff (so my lecturers expected) outside the
faculty. But my personality is not made for just one thing. I mean, why be one
thing when you can be many? My first stint outside engineering was campus
journalism. I joined an editorial board in the faculty of law and eventually
became the first Editor-in-Chief that was non-law student. It was an exciting
journey reading and writing about anything and everything happening in and
outside the campus; from entertainment, politics, sports and general news.
Years of persistence and perseverance paid out when I started getting invites
to attend international conference and awards. And combining this with
academics, I still finished top of my class and won departmental awards for
leadership. Truly, a man’s mind is elastic, once stretched, it keeps expanding.
The idea to start a portal that will connect students to
international opportunities popped up and that was the birth of Hopefield Network. It was a campus portal for news and funding opportunities for
international conferences and within few months of operation, it became a
campus wide initiative. After graduation, the temptation to let go came as a
result of busy schedules and burden on personal savings; more so that the scope
keeps expanding year on year. While the thought of giving up as a result of
financial burden crawls in, something within me keeps stretching and a little
further again this year. The scope this year is expanded beyond an offline
venture, we are also launching an online portal for young people interested in
politics, governance and community development.
Hopefield Network has expanded from just a mere campus
portal to a household brand for young people in Nigeria. Our areas of interest
has also expanded as we now engage more people in sustainable community
projects on and offline leveraging emerging technologies. We have network
across Nigeria building the country one community at a time.
While this projects continue to run purely on personal
savings, it is our desire and to get partners/sponsors-individuals,
organisations whose passion and goals align with our vision of a better Nigeria
through young people’s participation in community building. We have solid
foundations.
Please follow the social media handles of our projects @hopefieldnet and @under35_ng #YNAG and visit the website for more details.
Email to get in touch: info@hopefieldnetwork.ng
Meanwhile, join us this Saturday Sept 30, 2017 at Obafemi
Awolowo University as we engage more young people in community development.
You can join live via hopefieldnetwork.ng/live
No comments: