Adedoyin Adebolarinwa, a graduate of English Education from Ondo State University, Akungba Akoko, Nigeria. I am an English Language teacher and I currently work with Ifako International Secondary School Lagos. My career path as a teacher which started as a voluntary engagement in my upper secondary school was influenced my passion for human development. And over the course of seven years I have been teaching, I have been instrumental to the success of my students most especially the slow learners by training and mentoring them in developing strong academic abilities. In my effort to drive transformative education pedagogy that connects classroom experience with the community needs, I pioneered Service Learning in the school where I currently work which in addition to other contributions earned me an award as the most innovative teacher in 2017/2018 academic session. The concept allows teachers and students to develop collaborative projects that are based on classroom lessons to meet specific community needs. Advocacy against drug abuse is one of the projects the implementation of this initiative has produced. In 2017, I was one of the Nigerian secondary school teachers selected to participate in the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program which afforded me six weeks professional development training at California State University, Chico, United States. In addition to integrating the knowledge and skills gained into teaching, sharing the fruits of the program with other teachers has greatly helped them in improving the quality of feedback inside and outside their classrooms.
Beyond my teaching career, I co-founded a non-governmental organization called “Trinity Integrated Collective Empowerment Fellowship” incorporated in 2017 in response to my vision and motivation to complement the efforts aimed at addressing the decadence in education in my community. Through the organization, I launched Community Education Development Initiative to promote self-help projects for accessible qualitative education. In line with the objectives of this initiative, I collaborated with my local church to establish a free tutorial in English Language and Mathematics for the indigent primary and secondary school students in my locality. Also, the inaccessibility of many brilliant indigent students in my community to vital information capable of increasing their access to quality education led me into propagating information about local and international scholarships and educational opportunities for their benefits. Leadership mentoring and career counseling for the teenagers and the youths are other community engagements I have been functioning. As a member of Young African Leaders Initiative Network (YALINETWORK), I am a social media advocate for good governance, free and fair election in Nigeria.