David Tobiloba Adeyemi
David Tobiloba Adeyemi, a very bright scientist & STEM leader from Lagos Nigeria, who doesn’t really know how his innovative thinking started, but he does remember the days when he was a lot younger and highly enthusiastic about how things worked. He was always repairing any broken or worn-out gadget he came across. His parents treated him in an extremely unique way, although things were very hard for his family at the beginning, his parents still did everything possible to give him the best of the best at that early stage of his life.
David was barely 10 years old when the story of his wonder began. His mom usually complained about the act of him collecting and using the mobile phones of his visitors. It got to the extent that his mom promised to punish him each time he did that. Being a kid, he was always scared of being punished. When another visitor came to David’s house, it happened to be his uncle. He remembers taking his uncle’s mobile phone and completing some surveys on it and returned it when his uncle was leaving. David saw the anger on his mom’s face when he handed the phone back to his uncle and figured he was going to be punished, but his uncle, with astonishment, asked David what he did to his phone? He had a huge smile on his face and proceeded to tell David’s mom that he had spent a lot of money trying to repair his phone’s sound system and the phone tech’s told him it was damaged beyond repair. Then David’s uncle then whispered to his ear, “I’m proud of you engineer “. That day, a new transformation occurred in David’s life. What surprised him most was that his mom didn’t punish him that night and from that day on David began to notice he was made up of 3 things:
- An innovative spirit
- An imaginative mind
- An optimistic soul
He always had been dreaming of being able to change the whole universe starting by changing the poor aptitude and interest of students towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. David knew to accomplish this dream; he had to start from somewhere. Since the Junior Engineers Technicians and Scientist Club (JETS) was full, he decided to go forward to join the Literary and Debating Club simply because the students there where extremely scarce (the best place to develop a change). Little by little he started contributing more vividly to the clubs development and in the twinkle of an eye his reputation in that school became unexplainable in fact, he was recognized as one of he best debaters and contributors in that school.
Later on, he started expressing his thought on new discoveries to his teachers and mates likewise reasons why the school should embrace the STEM system, which later became part of the school. The early stages of his secondary school life were very hard for his parents to cope with because David’s school fees were extremely high. He felt his parents were already giving up on him during his first year there so he decided to try his best in assisting them in paying the fees. During his second year in school, he hit the jackpot by winning two grand-slam essay competitions one hosted by a local government on health in which he took third and the other by the Lagos state government on taxation in which he took second. It was the second essay he wrote that won him a scholarship and a complete computer set for my school. This assisted David’s parents a lot in helping him fund his education.
When he remembered his dream of transforming other student’s poor attitude towards STEM, he joined the JETS Club Society. His efforts towards the development of that club amazed most teachers and in fact, he started teaching seniors and conducting experiments he read about or watched on TV. This started drawing the attention of the whole school. Since David was a junior, He was being discriminated by both his seniors and some of his mates who believed it would be difficult to make it that far in innovating while in Nigeria, due to certain crisis going on. They killed his dream of finding possible solutions to HIV. The only way he felt he could stop the discrimination was to have a big title such as the “senior prefect”. While in senior school, he worked towards that but when the “prefect” election came, he wasn’t elected. He didn’t mind because he knew he could still make it since that spirit of enthusiasm was still alive.
Later on, he began putting down his imaginations and before he knew it, he had over 15 innovative ideas that he felt where able to change the whole world. He later started researching on cancer and submitted his project to the Google Science Fair and another project on a machine capable of extracting pure water from blood and urine to the Searching For Next Einstein Competition, which he was unable to get through the next stage in both. This boosted his moral to work harder and tougher in order to achieve a greater success. Then one day, he asked himself this question; “why don’t I connect two great minds who’ll actually find interest in me and what I’m into?” and with the help of Facebook and Twitter, David was able to connect with awesome people like Equzine Global (which he is presently a Young Ambassador for), Futuristex, Jack Andraka, Norina Shah, Ariadna Naterri, Aidan Aird and others who contributed positively to David’s life. They believed he could do it and encouraged him towards achieving such greatness.
When the next election came David was made the “Senior Prefect” breaking the schools record by becoming the first person to become a “Senior Prefect” without passing through the post of a Time Keeper. This raised his voice about STEM and everyone became interested. He focused more, researched more, listened in class more, believed more and before David knew it, he created his own hypothesis on the cause of liver cancer and he wrote an article on how adenoviruses can be transferred into possible cancer treatments and also how paper wasp products can be used to form super bio-degradable items for us. This attracted the JETS Club committee and he was made the president of the club! With this, he was given the permission by his school to conduct any experiment under the supervision of any staff of his choice. With this grant, he created a magnetizing and demagnetizing mesh solenoid, an Angel turbine, a Portable water fountain and a Water drop microscope.
With these achievements, he had more courage to apply for more and more fairs like the TED Prize 2015 and so on. His interest in STEM really contributed to the success he had in his external examinations; GCSE (8 distinctions 1 credit) and WAEC (4 distinctions and 4 credits). David shared with everyone his passion to never giving up on what inspires you most and if that is science, awesome!
The world needs us all to better it that’s why we are all in existence. People made all what we are relying on for survival so we should all learn to think on what we do every day so that we can change the world for the better. David wishes to help the change by making a change and leading others towards acquiring that change that’s why he is here making people understand that this is what he is made up of and it is because he is not afraid to show this that he has achieved this much. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a plan and not a step so we should aim our lives towards achieving a greater tomorrow. He knows there are people out there with similar interests and talent like his, but facing problems like absence of support and others. He encourages them to never give up no matter the circumstance. Learn to focus on the future and prepare to encounter obstacles on the way to the top!
David attended Amazing Grace Children School, Ajuwon, Lagos, Nigeria for Primary School, Citizens Comprehensive College, Temu-Epe, Lagos, Nigeria for High School
and was recently accepted into Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Oyo State, Nigeria
David is an Global Ambassador for:
Eduzine Global – https://twitter.com/EduzineGlobal
Futeristex Project – https://twitter.com/futuristex
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