My Imperial Graduation 2024

Guyssss!!

On Wednesday 8th May 2024 I had the utmost privilege of walking the stage at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall as I graduated with a Master in Public Health!

Let’s get a lowdown of how it all went shall we?

Kicked off the morning with a session in the gym as per usual, which is where I do my morning devotion (audio bible) – gotta start the day strong!

Got dressed and Samuel and I began the drive down to South West London from Nottingham – the event was slated to actually start by 20:15 (I know it’s weird, who graduates at night? Imperial’s faculty of medicine and public health does haha) but my gown collection time was 16:30 so we headed down earlier. Upon collecting my graduation gown we searched for the closest Nigerian restaurant to us as we were famished – as God would have it there was an Enish branch in walking distance! Enish Knightsbridge – you have my high praises! Every meal was a hit and all the food looked and tasted like art. I ordered my newest fave thing to order at Nigerian restaurants: pounded yam and Abula – if you haven’t tried it don’t knock the combo because it’s delicious!! We ate till we were full and as the portions were so large we took the extras home for continued enjoyment at a later time haha.

I got my new Naija restaurant fave combo: pounded yam and Abula!

I caught up with Asari my study buddy throughout the whole course as well as the super talented Yusuf! It was so great to see so many familiar faces after having done the course wholly online.

With my study buddy Asari Inyang – from course mates to close friends, Asari is a blessing!

My friend Dr Yusuf Shittu was also graduating! Fun fact: we met on a panel where we were both invited speakers at a seminar for medical students of the university of Lagos way back in 2019 and have remained friends since because when you see value in a person – you hold onto it!

Asari and Yusuf happen to work together in health tech – small world haha

Joyce got this awesome wide angle shot from her box seat – a talented photographer I stan!!

As I sat in the hall before the event commenced, I took a moment to look back on the journey that led to that point; how I had been so unsure about my academic capacity before starting the course that I took a free online course on writing literature reviews on FutureLearn, then being a lot better at academic writing than I had expected; the uphill journey that learning the coding language R for the quality improvement in healthcare module was and the nights I spent in tears because my code wasn’t running!! I sought help everywhere and God sent me helpers – you won’t believe what it was that was standing between me and my code’s success! A COLON hahaha I can laugh now but that time I wanted to pull my hair out!!

Beaming with joy and pride in this great achievement!

Doing my graduant walk of pride across the Royal Albert Hall stage was a moment of great pride for me. Did you know Beyonce has performed on this very stage before? Me and Beyonce have been on the same stage guys, I’m no one’s mate anymore hahahaha

Meet my mentor Dr Obinna Nnewuihe – has been a rock of support throughout – from being one of my referees for my masters application and reviewing my personal statement to even apply for the course right down to showing up on the special day! I’m always so grateful for his guidance in my life.

Grabbed a selfie with my friend Dr Tunde Oyebamiji, who won a prestigious prize for his amazing work in Nigeria that he did alongside his masters – phenomenal! Was also so happy to see Drs Eddy and Bolu Cole, they joined in to shout when I walked across the stage and I felt so happy in that moment haha

Also met Dr Kabir Ola in person which was such a delight! He was enrolled on the on-campus MPH and over the course we would bond over our related experiences from the tasking degree haha, it was a wonderful blessing to see each other cross the finish line.

There were highs too! I was the course representative for the entire duration of the masters and took part in committee meetings where I presented the concerns and feedback of my cohort to the faculty leaders every semester and sometimes in between when a pressing issue occurred. Representing a cohort of middle to senior public health professionals on different walks of life was a daunting task at first, but I came to really enjoy it by the end of my tenure. I thoroughly enjoyed my health systems development module among the many other modules and hope to apply it to make positive changes in international health system strengthening someday!

Carrying out my own primary grade research was a challenge, but I’m so glad I got the experience and I’m building upon it in the next masters project that I’ve just embarked upon, I learnt that it’s always a good idea to have a running theme in your research papers, never know I might qualify to get a portfolio PhD someday!

My parents came for my graduation and I was so fortunate to get them seats really close to the stage so I could see them from my seat! They were literally beaming with joy and stood out in their matching aso Oke outfits haha. Felt really nice to have their support and when we met up after the ceremony they showered me with prayers and their pride emanated from their wide smiles.

Group photo with mine and Dr Yusuf’s family and friends

My sister flew in from Finland to be there for me and made sure she made her mark because these photos she took are so beautiful and the way in which they were taken were so casual, it felt more like a photo walk, yet she was capturing excellence! Her night time photography is so crisp you wouldn’t know it was as dark as 22:30 was looking at them!

Special shout out to my Olowo ori mi, my partner in everything – Dr Samuel ‘Kandi, who rode with me through this degree! Prayers, motivation, encouragement – you name it, he did it!

And so that concludes the post! I’m super proud of myself for completing this great feat and I can’t wait to top it with my next success – biggest shoutout to God for making this whole thing possible!!