My name is Mr. Adeniyi, father of Fellow Temilola Adeniyi, and I am pleased to write to you.

When my daughter broke the news to me that she got an offer to the Teach For Nigeria Fellowship, I queried her to tell me more about the program, and you can’t imagine my disappointment when she explained to me that it has to do with teaching in a rural community. She made several attempts to convince me that it was a journey of impact and an opportunity for her to give back to her society. Despite her many talks, I felt she was taking a big chance with her career. However, I felt that I needed to give her a chance to live for what she is passionate about.

I am writing to you today because I am glad I allowed her to pursue her passion. Through the Fellowship program, my daughter, Temilola, has enlisted herself among the Nigerian youths working so hard, defying the norms to create a sustainable future for Nigerian children with a bleak future. The fellowship has shaped the trajectory of her career as a global changemaker and a public health advocate, who is working to reduce the vulnerabilities of young girls in underserved communities and to increase school attendance and concentration.

As a businessman, I am acutely aware of the problem of menstrual hygiene illiteracy and adolescent pregnancy in Lagos State. The initiative that she founded, "Health Literacy for the Girl Child Initiative," which is targeted at educating and empowering adolescent girls to take charge of their health and lives, has been of tremendous benefit to our local community.

This project has been able to achieve an unprecedented impact on the reduction of the rate of adolescent pregnancy in the community and has also gone on to educate adolescent girls about their menstrual health and empower them with reusable sanitary pads. She informed me that she has been able to record a 35% increase in school attendance and enrollment, which I am proud of.

She is one person that I have seen do amazing things for children who might not otherwise have a bright future for themselves. The platform and leverage that Teach For Nigeria provides her, have an enormous impact on her ability to achieve these things. With all the leadership training that she got at the training institute, she has quickly established herself as a go-to person for innovative solutions to problems.

From all I have shared with you, I need not tell you that I am super proud of her, and today, I no longer worry about Temilola’s future because she is doing something that will enrich her life for years to come.

I hope this inspires you to take part in something bigger than yourself while contributing your quota towards changing the narrative that we have become accustomed to.

I wish you the very best of luck as you begin this life-changing journey.

As a school administrator, my first encounter with Teach For Nigeria was through one of my teachers, and shortly after that I received Esther Soyinka, Adekunle Stephen, and Balogun Adekunle, members of the 5th cohort, posted to my school for their Fellowship program. Since joining our school, it has been an uncommon and cheering experience to have such amazing youth who are highly resolute in positively impacting the lives of today's generation and future leaders. Their passion to walk their talk as "Change Agents" is tremendously unique and reassuring for the profession. The Fellows, demonstrating a high sense of responsibility, combined academic and psychosocial skills to build a qualitative relationship with all stakeholders as they became ubiquitous in all school activities, providing the needed support for learners and other school stakeholders. These fellows discharged their duties in distinct ways; their resilience and commitment are second to none. They established cordial relationships with learners and leveraged 21st-century teaching methodologies in their classrooms, thereby making learning fun and interesting.

A project worth noting is the one initiated by Stephen Adekunle in collaboration with Mrs. Davids B.O., an existing teacher, where they sponsored fifty primary two (2) pupils to visit the Obasanjo Presidential Library (OPL) on an excursion from their purses. This act gave their learners another perspective on life, as it was a transformational experience that changed their mindsets to become great leaders of our dear nation in the future, regardless of their background.

Esther Adeyinka developed a strong and healthy relationship with her pupils. With this, she was able to create for them, a safe learning environment where they could express themselves, which, in turn, aided her in developing learning interventions that helped with their academic growth. She was also able to fundraise to provide her learners with school bags when she noticed they came to school with their books in polythene bags.

Balogun Adekunle, on the other hand, changed our classrooms' look and made learning activities more interactive and interesting. He did this by having some graphic designs and decorations in the classrooms. He also improvised some instructional materials, thereby giving learners practical experience with some abstract concepts.

When I thought I had seen it all, Esther and Stephen came up with an initiative they tagged “Young Innovation Network." The goal of this project is to identify children from a low economic background and equip them with vocational skills like shoemaking, hairdressing, and shoemaking that would enable them to be self-sufficient and financially independent so they can fulfil their basic needs. The entire staff, pupils, PTA, and SBMC of St. Peters Anglican Primary School, Ake, heartily express our profound appreciation to the Fellows and Teach For Nigeria for this wonderful and unique opportunity. Without mimicking words, they have been more than a blessing to the school community and education space as a whole.

I look forward to seeing and hearing about the giant strides the Fellows would make in transforming our education sector such that one day, we would all be proud of the quality of education our children have access to in schools, irrespective of the school type and location.