321 words about me!

My name is Toba, rightly pronounced "Tou-baa," though the English like to call me "Tow-ba" and the Romans call me "a-Tou-BBa!"

I consider myself a global citizen and rightfully so: having grown up with a mix of three different cultures. Born to Nigerian parents in Italy and educated with British system in Rome. Where do I belong? I am probably as clueless as you, but consider myself to be primarily Italian by culture, British by education and Nigerian by descent.

I love knowledge and get inspired listening to clear and deep minds. I appreciate positive unconventional thought patterns and not afraid to stand out of the crowd or be the odd one out. Guess what! I am cool, calm and collected, maybe even too quiet. Simply kept, my pleasant disposition and silence could unnerve a dove.

Though a qualified and practising pharmacist, I have developed keen interest in evaluating profitable companies and investing in them. My knowledge on the subject is vast thanks to various conferences and trainings I attended over the past decade. In other words, I beat the banks!

Personality wise, I am described as an INTJ by the Myers-Briggs test. That is: Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking and Judging. I am very often misunderstood as arrogant and bossy on first impression, but the truth is I am always thinking and constructing ideas in my mind. This makes me a silent architect and mastermind of functional systems.

I am an exemplary leader with a vast array of transferable skills, engaged in full time cutting edge scientific research and part-time dynamic pharmacy profession. An optimist and creative problem solver with contagious charisma and team spirit.

I am a firm believer in Jesus and have a strong faith in Him. I spend my free time serving at RCCG Nottingham to the best of my abilities, engaging in mentorship, weekly public speaking, teaching administration and music. I swim and like to play the guitar

Flexible & Adaptable

Optimistic & Resilient

Cool, Calm & Collected

Vision & Foresight

Brief Life History

I am the eldest son and was born on 16th of September 1990, in the province of Brescia, Italy. The first 8 years of my life were spent living together with my parents in northern Italy, which actually turned out to be the longest I will ever have to stay with them. Rather absurd, right?
My parents forecasted a brighter future with an English education and made the difficult decision to let me live 6 hours away from home. I studied at Emmaus Christian School located in the province of Latina in Italy from 1998 to 2008, where I obtained GCE London 'O' and 'A' Level certificates. During these period, I developed a profound love for Mathematics, Chemistry and IT amongst many other skills. Here's the million dollar question, what do you do with an English education in Italy?

University of Rome

My science background provided me with multiple degree choices. I got various unconditional offers to study Pharmacy from Universities of Manchester, Bristol, Leeds and King's College in London. Despite the attractions from these prestigious universities, the UK student loan system never for once fascinated me and bureaucratic conditions made me defer my entry till academic year 2009/2010. What's next for me?
At the same time, Italy realised the need to start medical courses fully taught in English language. In January 2009, the University of Rome, Tor Vergata championed the idea of starting a Pharmacy degree course in English, with the collaboration of University of Nottingham and Alliance Boots. I enrolled as a pioneering student in January 2009 and with my 'A' Level background giving me advantage over my Italian counterparts, I got regional and private scholarship all through out my 5 years of study at the University of Rome based on merit. To clearly put things in perspective, accepting an offer in the UK would have produced a graduate with thousands of debt, but God had it that I got over € 32,000 sponsorship during my stay in Rome. Well..., I am sure you can read in between the lines and factor in some hard work and dedication.

Nottingham version 1

I was also privileged to visit University of Nottingham during my Masters in 2012, where I conducted a 4-month research project with Morgan Alexander and Andrew Hook. I finally graduated with first class Hons. in December 2013 and I moved over to Norwich (UK) in June 2014 following a job offer from Ornella Barra to work at Boots Pharmacy as a full time pharmacist, where I gained pharmacy professional experience and represented Walgreens Boots Alliance at Expo Milan 2015 in Italy.

Nottingham version 2

After working as a full time Pharmacist for 1 year in Norwich, the unquenchable passion and primary reason for studying pharmacy rekindle within me, having studied pharmacy to gain solid background for cutting research. Once again, nature conspired to help me and just like the boomerang, in 2015, Morgan Alexander offered me a 4 year PhD position in Nottingham and here I am, currently a part-time pharmacist at Boots Nottingham, whilst undertaking a full time PhD research at the School of Pharmacy in the University of Nottingham.

Others

Asides these, I am a firm believer in Jesus and have a strong faith in Him. I spend my time serving at RCCG Nottingham to the best of my abilities, engaging in mentorship, public speaking, administration and music. I swim and like to read books, especially on investments.Well done! You got to the end of this story.

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