Aderonke Kujore: My 10 Most Exciting Moments So Far

MEMORABLE MILESTONES Dr. Aderonke Kujore, an organisational leadership consultant and advocate for Educating all Nigeria Children shares 10 most exciting moments of her life and career, deemed treasured and outstanding. Ferdinand Ekechukwu brings the excerpts: 1. Becoming Sports Prefect — My First Public Experience of Leadership One of the earliest exciting moments I can remember was being selected as Sports Prefect during my final year at International School, University of Lagos. I had played basketball for years simply because I loved the game. I wasn’t playing because I expected it to lead anywhere, so hearing my name announced as Sports Prefect came as a genuine surprise. 2. Leaving for University at Howard University — A Whole New World of Possibilities Attending Howard University was one of the defining transitions of my life. It represented much more than earning a university degree. I had left Nigeria, spent a year away from family in Sweden, and now entered an entirely different environment, one that exposed me to new people, new ideas and possibilities for my future that I could not yet fully imagine. 3. Leading Through COVID — When Leadership Mattered Differently One of the defining experiences of my professional career came during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the United States’ economic response to the crisis, I was able to get a unique opportunity to serve the country by helping to recruit, train and lead more than 1,000 loan officers supporting the Small Business Administration; the team ensured that businesses going through hard times as a result of the pandemic got the support they needed to stay afloat. 4. Defending My Doctoral Dissertation — Becoming Dr. Aderonke Successfully defending my doctoral dissertation and graduating with my doctorate in Organizational Leadership on my 38th birthday with family and friends right by my side was an unforgettable moment. There was something particularly meaningful about reaching that milestone in leadership—the subject that had quietly followed me from being a teenage Sports Prefect in Lagos through my professional career and increasingly became central to my life’s work. 5. The Birth of My Children — Two Lives That Changed Mine No professional accomplishment could replicate the moment I became the mother of my twins. Their arrival changed not only my life but also the way I thought about success, time, responsibility and the future. Suddenly, the life I was building wasn’t only about me. I had two little people watching, learning and eventually forming their own ideas about the kind of lives they wanted to lead. 6. Completing My First Retirement Home — Building a Life I love, Not Just a Career Completing the construction of my first retirement home was exciting for reasons that had very little to do with bricks and mortar. For so much of adult life, we are encouraged to build careers, achieve goals and keep moving toward the next accomplishment. Building that home represented something different to me. It represented intentionally creating the life I wanted outside of work—the freedom to slow down, spend time with the people I love, travel and eventually enjoy the fruits of years of work. 7. Seeing the Impact of the Aderonke Foundation Come Full Circle Some of my most meaningful moments have come through the work of the Aderonke Foundation in Nigeria. There is tremendous satisfaction in opening a children’s library, organising a program or standing before hundreds of young people at one of our leadership conferences. But some of the moments that stay with me most happen afterward. They are the messages and conversations when a young person tells me that they earned a scholarship, found a job, started something new, earned interest on their stock, took a courageous step or simply began to believe that more was possible for their life. Watching more than 1,000 young people choose to continue their leadership development through our mentoring program has been particularly meaningful. 8. Receiving the Peak Humans of Change Award Winning the Peak’s Humans of Change Award was particularly special because of the extraordinary number of people whose stories were considered—more than 500,000 entries. Recognition is never the reason I do the work, but there are moments when someone stops and says, in effect, we see what you are doing. Those moments can be deeply encouraging especially in hard seasons. 9. Becoming Chief Operating Officer — A Childhood Dream Come True Becoming Chief Operating Officer of AVF Consulting was truly a dream come true for me. As a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a corporate executive. One of my earliest examples of professional leadership was my mother. I watched her serve on the leadership team at the University of Lagos as Head of Senate and Ceremonies, and seeing her in that environment at the Senate House organizing significant events like the visit of President Nelson Mandela many years ago helped shape my own ideas about what might someday be possible for me. I carried that aspiration with me through the years as I studied, worked, accepted increasingly challenging assignments and grew as a leader. There was no straight road to the executive suite, and there were many years of hard work between the little girl who imagined herself as a corporate leader and the woman who was eventually entrusted with helping to lead an organization. 10. The Little Moments That Turned Out to Be the Big Ones When I think about the most exciting moments of my life, I realise that many of them would never make it onto a CV or résumé. They are watching my daughter win medals at the Junior Olympics and so many other championships; hearing people repeatedly tell me what a kind and well-behaved young man my son is. They are the unexpected meals and gifts my children buy for me and the many other little ways they find to care for me. They are dancing with my father and traveling to Nigeria with my mother so she could see firsthand the work that she inspired and means so much to me. They are singing with my brother, playing basketball or riding bikes with friends, laughing with my sorority sisters, and simply spending unhurried time with people I love. They are also the conversations with young people I have mentored in Nigeria and the joy of hearing that someone has succeeded, earned an opportunity, taken a courageous step or begun to believe in what is possible for their own life. These moments don’t come with titles, promotions, awards or ceremonies. Some last only a few minutes. But when I think about what has made my journey exciting, I cannot separate my career from the people with whom I have shared my life.