I am Adeyemi Fatima Olayinka, a graduate of the Department of Nursing in the Faculty of Clinical Sciences. My journey was unexpected, I aimed for Medicine and Surgery right off the bat but ended up in Chemistry Education for a year, joined the Excel Minds group thinking that if I couldn't help people physiologically I could at least help them academically, then tried again and landed in Nursing. Semester after semester, it's been a collage of the beautiful and the ugly, smiles and sweat, laughter and tears, nothing short of impactful.
Emerging as Best Graduating Student of the 7th Nursing Cohort is my proudest achievement, not just for the grade but because it reflected years of consistency across demanding academic work and clinical postings, while still showing up for leadership and community work. I served as Head of Fundraising for the LASU Students' Union Medical Outreach, Secretary of the Independent Electoral Commission at the departmental level, and Assistant Head of Fundraising and Assistant Director of Studies within MSSN LASUCOM, while also starting a routine of documenting recalled test questions for my class.
Deadlines and group presentations were my biggest challenge, LASU moved at a pace so fast that if you blinked one too many times you'd miss an entire semester, and I learned to pick my battles with minimal collateral damage. Excellence isn't a single big moment, it's built in the small, unglamorous decisions, and that lesson has taught me to keep pushing till the end. I received the MAX Award for Outstanding Academic Performance in Nursing, a Silver Medal from the NUNSA-LASUCOM Decagon Football Competition, and was a three-time scholarship recipient.
God has been my biggest source of inspiration throughout this entire journey.
My advice to current and incoming students is that academic excellence isn't a word with a leash on it, you know what you can do, so show them, and there'll be many things coming your way, so still dream big and put in the work. As I remind myself often: which of the favours of your Lord do you deny?