We were lucky to catch up with Ejiroghene Mary Ukiri recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ejiroghene Mary , thanks for joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I would like to preface my answer to this question by saying that my parents did so many things right. I actually cannot come up with something that they did wrong in the course of raising my older brother and I. Every decision they have made and lesson they taught me is both directly and indirectly responsible for the life and career that I am currently building for myself today. When I was previously asked a similar question, I briefly explained how my dad instilled this need to be determined and zealous in whatever path I chose to take in life. I can truly say that my dad had a lot to do with my never ending feeling to do more for not only myself, but for those around me and in my country as well. My dad would talk to me about how important education and knowledge is from a very young age so this made me sure that was the path I needed to take in order to be successful. He taught me the importance of having a stance and opinion, especially when it comes to political issues. As a woman, I learned not to be easily swayed by popular views from my father because he showed me what it looked like to have educated views in every aspect that is important to my life. He emphasized the importance of not taking things for granted. My dad would always remind me that there is so much to be done which makes me feel like I am limitless and nothing is ever unattainable for me. Starting my non profit was a project that I have never embarked on before. There was no one that could show me the steps to take. Thankfully, I had this belief that it is not impossible for me as long as I really wanted it. This belief came directly as a result of my dads efforts in raising me. He instilled the drive for ambition in me and the longing for acquiring as much knowledge as I possibly can. When it comes to my mom, I truly do not even know where to begin. She is the strongest support system I could ever ask for. Growing up, I watched my mom go out of her way for people that she barely even knew. She would see and care for people that have been ignored for most of their lives due to poverty. My mom is one of those people that supports and cares for people regardless of what she is going through or if they can return the favor. How does this relate to me? My non profit came as a result of her raising me to see the importance of giving to others in any way you can. Why care for people you do not know? I truly believe that helping others proves to be one of the most beautiful things one can do as an individual. Nothing truly compares to the fulfillment that comes from lifting a burden off of a persons back in any way that one can. I would not have come to genuinely believe this theory without my mother. She not only taught it to me, but she showed me even on days she did not know that I was watching. My mom is also a teacher and a friend for multiple reasons. She never hesitated to educate me on the trails that comes with being a woman. She believed in me before I grew to believe in myself. She knew my capabilities before I came to know them myself and that plays a big part in everything I do today.

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

My business is a non-profit organization called the Ejiro M Ukiri International Scholarship Fund and our mission is to inspire graduating Senior Secondary School students to embark on their journey towards acquiring a University/ College education in Nigeria. We intend to do this by aiding their dreams and aspirations financially so as to relieve a substantial part of the burden that the cost of further education might be. Our purpose is to support the young and talented minds that inhabit the winners and applicants of our scholarship, in order to provide them with a true and meaningful chance for success in the nearest future. What sets me apart from others is definitely how much believe and faith I have in the success the students that will be awarded this scholarship. I have always really wanted to give back and try my best to fix something in someway. This organization represents that for me. There are so many problems in the world and I became tired of saying, “hey there is a problem here”. I really wanted to start saying, “there was a problem here but we took care of it”. It definitely was not easy to start and it still is not easy. We have been trying our best to come up with effective ways to raise funds and get everyone on board with our ideas. In the process, my team and I came up with this notion of “Nigerian Students helping Nigerian students” which essentially means finding ways for Nigerian students in diaspora (mainly the United States), to help out Nigerian students over in Nigeria financially. So, we started organizing fundraisers and events at the University level such as sales and lunches to get the word out and raise money and motivation for the cause simultaneously. It has been incredibly successful and we have been met by talented students that want to help our cause and achieving our goals.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I have learned so many remarkable lessons in the course of being the director of the Ejiro M Ukiri International Scholarship fund team. However, I am going to start by highlighting the fact that as a leader, it is extremely important to remember that friends are not always the best coworkers. It is natural and expected that at the start of any business or non-profit there will be people around you that want to show their support and love for your business. This can easily become a problem when the responsibilities and roles of the business are distributed on the basis of friendships rather than who can actually carry out the role/jobs the best. As a leader, it is very important to assign job positions and responsibilities to the person that is most suitable for the job and not the person that you may have known for the longest. This is because the success of the business relies heavily on work getting done and not only on support. Because of this, I have learned to provide alternate ways for friends and loved ones to support my business such as donating, social media posting, attending fundraising events, and so on. It is salient to remember that the business comes first and as a leader, you have to do what is best for the business in order to be successful. To manage a team, you have to ensure that everyone is playing a part that they truly want. Your team members have to feel and see that they matter to the team. Sometimes, saying something like “Hey Micheal! I saw your work on the fliers and you did an amazing job! Thank you for all your work!”, is really all it takes. In this example, Micheal will end up feeling like all his hard work on the flier was acknowledged and be motivated to do more for the team moving forward. When it comes to maintaining high morale in a team, there are so many ways to go about it. For my own team I adapted the use of partnerships. Let team members work and bond together. I also allow for ‘chill days and conversations’. This gives an outlet for us to enjoy what we do as a team. Team members start to look forward to meetings and actively contributing to projects which is something we value as a whole. I also make sure to remind the team why we put all our efforts into what we do especially when we embark on challenging projects. It is very important that everyone enjoys the part they play on the team because that in itself maintains high morale.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I can think of a lot of stories that have illustrated my resilience over the years but I would like to highlight the time it really came through for me in the course of starting my non-profit. At the establishment of my non -profit, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. The problem was building people’s confidence in what I wanted to achieve through the scholarships. Because I did not have proof of students that my non-profit has been able to help, I started to come off to some people as a fraud. They had no assurance that when they donated, the money would actually go towards the education of Nigerian students that I said it will go towards. Even though this proved to be a challenge for me, I decided not to focus on it and instead to focus on ways to foster the non-profit so that with time people will see that it is a legit cause with the most pure and honest intentions. I felt that the more effort and resilience I showed towards raising money and publicizing the need for more financial support in the lives of Nigerian students, the more people will naturally be inclined towards helping, believing, and spreading the word. This theory ended up being immensely correct because not long after the founding of my non-profit, we received a lot of support from people we did not even know. This made it possible for the money we needed to sponsor our first group of students to be raised in our first year of starting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ejirointernationalscholarshipfund.com/
• Instagram: @ejiromukirifoundation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejiroghene-mary-ukiri-b747bb1a6
• Other: https://ejirointernationalscholarshipfund.com/donate/