We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Clementina Ojo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Clementina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a customer success story with us?

Through my small tutoring business C.E.O. Learning Services, I got to meet an incredibly strong and accomplished older woman, who decided to get a PhD after retirement. This student is a retired registered nurse now working as a school nurse. In her continued search for a challenge, she enrolled in a PhD program. Since enrolling in this program, she had been having issues with navigating the technology and overwhelmed with the volume of work she had to do on the computer. I naturally expected this to be a challenge for me as well, considering it had been quite some time since she went to school. Her frustration with her classes and professors had pushed her to the point of wanting to transfer to a different program. because she was failing the two classes she was enrolled in.

My goal was to help her understand that she could adapt instead of hope for something different elsewhere, which is not guaranteed. We met every weekend at the library to practice navigating canvas, closely following assignment rubrics to make assignments easier to complete and practicing writing cohesive papers in APA format. At the end of the semester, she messaged me to let me know she passed both classes with As and she was grateful for my assistance.

Feedback like this student’s reminds me of why I started CEO Learning Services; education should be accessible to all and for those that have challenges there should be extra care available.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born in Nigeria, then moved to Belize at the age of 8. When meeting new people, after saying that sentence, I usually have to quickly satisfy their curiosity by explaining how I made it all the way from Nigeria to Belize. My family moved there because my father was employed as a pharmacist in a program that sent medical professionals to Belize. I spent most of my life in a small town named Punta Gorda, but my family lives in Belize City now. From there, I moved to St. Louis for college in 2019, where I attended Saint Louis University. I’ve been blessed with great opportunities in St. Louis, so I have been living here since.

It was definitely not a smooth road. Besides having to adapt to a new country and culture at a young age, moving to America by myself was probably the most difficult thing I have done; it’s been more of a challenge than I anticipated. I experienced a lot of culture shock, particularly with it being a more individualistic society and I was used to having more community, being from a foreign country. It is still kind of a struggle finding community, but I have met a few good people.

During the week, I am a data analyst at a local foster care non-profit and on the weekends, I run my small tutoring and professional development service business, C.E.O. Learning Services, where I assist students [K-12 and university level] with staying on track with classes and creating quality professional development materials. I come from a family with a number of teachers and academic accomplishment has always been a significant point of pride. I consider myself a student of life, so the mission of my small business is to share what I have learned on my academic journey as well as what I continue to learn along my life journey. For example, something I have been open about through my business is the career pivot I took going from forfeiting my law school acceptance and scholarship to beginning a career in data analytics. That was another significant challenge I have faced on my journey and I thought it was important to share with others how I found my identity outside of a field of study.

I also do some free lance modeling on the side. It is something I started this year and I have found it to be my favorite creative outlet. Though I appreciate how academically inclined I am, I feel the most fulfillment when I am creating art with my body, which is the opportunity I believe modeling provides me.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Something I have been open about through my business is the career pivot I took going from forfeiting my law school acceptance and scholarship to beginning a career in data analytics. I got a dual Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminology & Criminal Justice, with the intention to practice criminal law. During my last semester of grad school I lost my passion for law and was lost for a while. Luckily, I was able to connect my analytical skills from my schooling to data science and decided to go down that path, learning some things I did not know I was capable of. That was another significant challenge I have faced on my journey and I thought it was important to share with others how I found my identity outside of a field of study.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best sources of new clients for me are freelance websites and word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ceolearningservices.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceolearningservices/profilecard/?igsh=Z291OXhicW1xYTNn
• Other: Model portfolio: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGD7HLa_FI/EqKzvxAKamWVBwqz8Z8nmQ/edit?utm_content=DAGD7HLa_FI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Image Credits

@stefsmagazine
@es1shots
@nylusblack