About the Speaker

Speaker Stephanie Akinwoya

Stephanie Akinwoya a passionate physics teacher, committed to student's success in the classroom and life, presently in Iju Senior Grammar school is a graduate of physics of Imo state university Owerri, with a postgraduate diploma in education from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, and a 2018 recipient of the commonwealth distance learning masters' scholarship for a masters in online and distance learning in education, with the Open University UK. She has passionately been projecting the course of STEM education amongst Teenagers especially among the girls through her pet project Girls-pro-stem, with some of these girls going on to represent their school in both national and international competition. She is a Master Teacher with the Level Up Village(LUV) USA and has been instrumental in scaling up, connection-based learning in several schools across Education district 1 Lagos as a lead mentor to teachers who are currently running the connection based programs in their schools.

As teacher dealing with teenagers she has seen first hand the struggles students face with their mental health in a society not open to freely discussing these issues, and has witnessed how education can transform a child's life. Her interest for this project derives from the fact that the designing of an online safe space for accessing mental health information for young people, can help address the issue of depression and suicide which is becoming prevalent among Nigerian teens and young adults.