Today we’d like to introduce you to Ejiroghene Mary Ukiri.
Hi Ejiroghene, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Whenever I am faced with the difficult task of answering this question, I am always unsure of where exactly to start from. I start to think of all the possible answers I could provide and all the different experiences I could include. To get the ball rolling, I will start by introducing myself. My name is Ejiroghene Mary Ukiri, and I am a first-generation Nigerian-American with an immense passion for helping others achieve their dreams and life goals. That being said, the question becomes, “How exactly are you doing that, Mary?”. I cannot fully answer that question without providing some basic information about who I am and where I am from because my passion directly stems from the very diverse experiences that I have been fortunate to acquire from my pre-teenage years until now. I was born in New York city and moved to Nigeria at the tender age of five. I lived in Abuja, Nigeria for a total of eight years before moving back to the United States at the age of twelve. As one might expect, over the course of those years, I was able to form a deep connection and understanding of where I am from and the true importance of having a grasp of the not only the excitement but also the tribulations that come with being Nigerian, and in a semi-larger sense, being African. After successfully transitioning into my new life as an American teenager, I soon started to understand what it meant to be an African American woman in America. This experience is something that I proceeded to learn and struggle with as I took on my teenage years and navigated my way through high school. In an effort to share my experiences and ideas with my peers and people that might share my struggles, I wrote and published my very first article in the Lake Highlands Advocate Magazine at the age of seventeen. The article was titled, “Words from an LHHS student: How are we feeling,” and was able to capture a great amount of attention from members of my school and society. It was at this point in my life that I came to terms with my talent in writing, and so I started to not only believe that I have a voice but also that my voice resonated with a lot of people far and near from me. As a result of this article, I was offered a blogger position by the owner of a website called “The College Pod.” After a while of working under the College Pod, I had strengthened my abilities in writing and had a lot more confidence in using my voice and words to help others. In the year 2021, I took a vacation to Nigeria in order to visit my parents and loved ones. During my stay, I witnessed not only the extreme excesses and shortcomings of the Nigerian government but also the massive negative effect it was having on the livelihood of Nigerians. This deeply inspired me to use my voice to speak on behalf of people that might not have the means to. As a result of this, I wrote my first article outside of the United States, titled “We Are Bound to Never Forget.” This article proved to be my best work as it got multi-published in the nation’s most popular platforms such as ‘The Premium Times,’ ‘Vanguard’ and ‘Head Topics.” In an expected attempt to follow the steps of leading platforms in the nation, smaller online platforms like ‘The Daily Asset,’ ‘Latest Nigerian News,’ ‘Newstral,” and many others, also published the article, thereby, making it available to a great amount of Nigerian readers around the nation. This outcome made me come to terms with the importance of what I need to do as a writer and a change-maker. After my return to the United States, I was certain that I wanted to do everything I possibly can to use my voice to help those that cannot do so for themselves. As a result, I founded a non-profit organization/ scholarship fund named the “Ejiro M Ukiri International Scholarship Fund.” The mission of the organization is to inspire graduating Senior Secondary School students (equivalent to high 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. My aim is to provide a third-party scholarship for financially challenged students in order to not only motivate them but to give them a fair chance at education and achieving their dreams. I am currently working on raising the funds to reach this goal by organizing fundraising events, meeting the leaderships of other African- oriented clubs and organizations to discuss, and publicly speaking at churches and social events in order to raise money and awareness for a cause that will go a long way and have an enormous impact in the life of many Nigerians.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The popular saying goes, “…the greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” My journey with the foundation has come to be a true embodiment of this saying. The truth is, there is great need for what we do. It is common knowledge that there are a large number students (in this case Nigerian students) that are in need of financial support to pursue a further education. There are countless creative and brilliant minds that are just waiting for the opportunity to be recognized and supported. The goal of the Ejiro M Ukiri Foundation is to give these students a chance at the success that is right within their reach. Of course, achieving this goal cannot be a smooth road. However, I do not define these experiences as struggles/obstacles but rather as a learning experience. I say this because an obstacle can be defined as “a thing that blocks one’s way or prevents or hinders progress.” It is safe to say that my progress as the founder of this organization has not been hindered because the vision that it was built on surpasses any difficult experience that has come about since its establishment. I would say that a challenging task for me, however, was building people’s confidence in what I wanted to achieve through the scholarships. Because we had not sponsored any students, I started to come off to some people as a fraud during the foundations earlier days. 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 nonprofit 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.
We’ve been impressed with Ejiro M Ukiri International Scholarship Fund, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
This nonprofit has come to be a lot of things to many different people. I am so grateful and privileged to be able to impact lives in this way. The EMU Foundation is one that calls for the support of anyone and everyone who we are able to reach. We provide people with not only a way to give back to society and change the lives of students across the globe, but we give students the platform to know that their hard work and ambition is seen, acknowledged, and rewarded. The official vision statements says that “..the Ejiro M Ukiri International Scholarship fund finances the further education of graduating Nigerian Senior Secondary School students Nationwide. We aim to give as much financial aid as we can to every student around the nation, regardless of their state of origin and background”. We want people to fully comprehend that there is great need for what we do. By donating, spreading the word, attending events, or even reaching out to our team, a very big impact is being made on a life that one cannot physically see or meet. As a person that has come to truly value the substance of emotions, that feeling of creating that big of a change in someone’s life is quite irreplaceable. A single contribution might be all that determines whether or not an aspiring student gets the help they need to chase after their dreams and take control of their educational journey. I would also like for people to know just how much the EMU Team appreciates all the support and aid from the numerous people that believe in the mission and drive of this organization. What sets us apart from others is just how far we will go to make sure that every single one of our applicants gets a fair shot at being a scholarship winner. We achieve this by adopting absolute transparency in everything we do. Our financials remain spotless, and our application process remains free of biases and favoritism. We truly believe that every single student deserves a chance to be sponsored regardless of background, religion, or origin, and so we carry these values with us as we walk through the process of selecting winners.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Based on my Christain beliefs, I do not really believe that luck has really played any role in my journey with the non-profit. I believe a lot in prayers. My parents raised me to navigate life based on faith, and I have come to truly appreciate that in the course of my life. Because of this, when I encounter any situation, be it positive or negative, I do not base it on good or bad luck but rather a fate or, as some say, a divine plan. However, I have come to learn that things cannot always go as planned, and that actually ends up becoming the beauty of the journey. There are so many successes that have come with running the non-profit, and it truly has been a blessing for my life. It has quite literally become a teacher for me because it allowed me to grow up and truly realize how reformative it can be to help others. I attend all our very well-put-together fundraisers, and sometimes I just get to step back and watch the beauty of people coming together, happily, to help people they have not and will never meet. Now, as far as I am concerned, these experiences cannot be accredited to something as simple as ‘good luck.’ It is definitely a series of events that are deeper than meets the surface. The sequence of events that causes the success or failure of a project as life-changing as this one is based on faith, and in my case, a faith in God himself.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ejirointernationalscholarshipfund.com/
- Instagram: @ejiromukirifoundation
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejiroghene-mary-ukiri-b747bb1a6 https://www.linkedin.com/company/ejiro-m-ukiri-foundation/
