Meet Ayomide, Our Partnerships & Programmes Officer!
Hello! I'm Ayomide Oshinjo, the new Partnerships and Programmes Officer at Youth STEM 2030. My journey with this remarkable organisation began when I had the chance to present my research project at the Youth STEM Matters Research Conference back in 2021. Witnessing the diversity and innovation of STEM projects undertaken by young people worldwide was truly inspiring. However, it also highlighted the glaring education and innovation gap between young people in the global south and their counterparts in the north. It was a personal awakening to the popular saying that “talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not”. This reinforced my decision to join the Scholars Program at the Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM) a few months later.
During my time at NUTM, I had the unique opportunity to learn and grow alongside 59 talented young individuals from across Africa. Together, we immersed ourselves in technology, entrepreneurship, and design, forming a vibrant community of changemakers determined to make a positive impact on the world. The interdisciplinary nature of the cohort and curriculum stretched my mind and also helped envision the role of young people in addressing key global and regional problems from their corners of the world. This experience led me back to Youth STEM 2030.
Now, as the Partnerships and Programmes Officer, I am excited to bring my experiences and insights to the Core Team. Throughout my career, I have collaborated with diverse stakeholders to design, build, and operate businesses and technology products. This has involved forging and maintaining vital relationships to achieve targeted goals. One notable partnership I was involved in at LifeBank was a research collaboration to develop and test an alternative method for diagnosing COVID-19 infections using saliva. This partnership contributed to Nigeria's pandemic response, demonstrating an opportunity to enhance testing capacity, particularly in resource-poor communities. Youth STEM 2030 has already empowered so many young people as STEM changemakers, and with the right partnerships, we can do even more.
In this role, I am committed to building and nurturing meaningful connections with organisations and individuals who share our vision of empowering young people to tackle pressing global issues through STEM. These connections are central to building a powerful network that amplifies our impact and enables us to reach more young people. I am particularly interested in strategic partnerships that expand our programmes and initiatives to underserved areas, ensuring that young people from all backgrounds have access to opportunities to create global solutions.
I am also genuinely excited to engage with the Youth STEM 2030 community and get to know everyone. I firmly believe that our community is at the heart of our impact, driven by its diversity and unwavering spirit. Through collaboration and shared learning, we can create a nurturing environment that fosters growth, innovation, and success for youth around the world. I believe that by working together, we can unlock our potential and channel our passion into solutions that will shape a brighter and more sustainable future for everyone. I am eager to play my part in this journey, and I cannot wait to see the incredible impact we can make together.
