Introduction
My birth name is Ayomide Ijietemi, but most of the people who surround me call me Ayo. This excludes my mother, father, and younger brother due to them all calling me Mide. My name actually says quite a few things about me. For one, my tribe. My parents are from Nigeria, a country located in west Africa. In Nigeria, we separate ourselves by “tribe”. My family comes from the Yoruba tribe, so if I was to meet another Nigerian and tell them my name they would be able to pinpoint the region in Nigeria my family is from. Isn’t that interesting? In addition to my tribe, it means my placement in the family. The name Ayomide means ‘my first joy has come’. This indicates that I am the first joy of the family, aka the first born. My brother’s name is Ayodeji which means ‘my second joy has come’. This indicates that he is the second child in the family. My parents immigrated here to the U.S. and then had my brother and I in Elgin, Illinois. That’s where we lived for most of our lives until we moved to the Chicago suburb, Schaumburg. My biggest intrinsic motivation would be success. I am motivated to succeed and do well. From very early on I’ve always tried to push myself just a little more to do better in a certain area. Whether this be reading, studying, getting into higher level classes, getting a better job, or even just knowing how to cook better. The fear of being mediocre and not even being close to my full potential always motivates me enough to keep working hard in all aspects of my life. Which is how I ended up at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I originally transferred from the Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. Right away when I had begun my freshman year at NIU, I knew it wasn’t for me. UIUC had always been in the back of my mind as a school and for some reason when applying for colleges the first time around I had felt the need to lower my expectations. I applied for the fall semester of 2022 and a couple months later..here I am! The pro’s outweighed the cons of transferring by like a million. For example, I didn’t have to change my major or minor. I’m still a health science major with a public health minor. The biggest thing I hope comes out of this I-Leap course, is that I leave feeling confident that I have picked up some kind of advice/information that will boost my track to success. I hope that I learn something in this class that I can look back on in 10 year and remember it vividly. I also want to make a couple life long connections and friendships, especially because this course is full of like minded people like myself. My biggest personal value I live by is that comparison is the thief of joy. I used to always beat myself down worry about what other people were doing, where they were at in life, how well off they were and didn’t realize how important it is to remember everyone works at different paces. That does not mean we can not reach the same goal. There are so many different routes to get to a goal or destination and because we are all human beings with differences, we need to be kind to ourselves. Always remember your own personal victories instead of comparing your losses to what you believe are other people’s winnings. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my amazing friends and family. You will also probably find me with some sort of animal, whether that be on a farm, with my cat, or at an event that involves animals. Which is probably why I am such an outdoorsy gal and love camping around! |
Career Goals
My overall end goal with my career path is to become a Physician Assistant and assist in neurosurgery. Currently the way I plan this is by starting with the obvious, education. I chose a major in interdisciplinary health sciences because it involves the various sciences that regard healthcare. Originally I went into college planning to be a physical therapist and since there was no specific major for pre-pt I chose health sciences which ended up perfect for me anyways. My minor in public health was mainly for if I end up deciding to go into research after I graduate and want to see how I can better health for the public. While in undergraduate school I’m working to build my resume and my file for when I’m applying for grad. school as well as jobs. I currently work with an orthopedic surgery company in their rehabilitation department. I try to network with the surgeons working at my location and ask for advice. I will be using the remaining of my undergrad to collect internship experience and volunteer hours. After undergraduate I will be applying for a graduate physician assistant program. I’m hoping to attend the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and then come back to Chicago.
The reason I chose physician assistant as my future career is a long story. From as early as I could remember I knew I was going into healthcare. Any and everything that has to do with the human body has always fascinated me. I've always wanted I wanted to go into neurosurgery specifically. Physician assistants can work in a variety of fields..including assisting in surgery. It was a no brainer for me at the time.
My most ideal work environment would be on the more fast paced side. I enjoy positions where I’m constantly being thrown new situations which I feel happens quite often in surgery. I don’t see myself changing my mind about my PA occupation
The reason I chose physician assistant as my future career is a long story. From as early as I could remember I knew I was going into healthcare. Any and everything that has to do with the human body has always fascinated me. I've always wanted I wanted to go into neurosurgery specifically. Physician assistants can work in a variety of fields..including assisting in surgery. It was a no brainer for me at the time.
My most ideal work environment would be on the more fast paced side. I enjoy positions where I’m constantly being thrown new situations which I feel happens quite often in surgery. I don’t see myself changing my mind about my PA occupation
Community Service
Serving the community is important to me because I am reminded on a daily basis the disadvantages that people have in comparison. As I grew older my compassions for others increased as well. Which is why I am going into healthcare to provide as much assistance I can for others. We are all just trying to get by in this big scary world and sometimes we need an extra hand. Whether community service is holding newborn babies who were put up for adoption, cooking meals for the homeless, providing shelter for foster dogs, etc we should do what we can to help our community.
I have been involved for about 3 years now with Feed My Starving Children. It’s an organization that packs meals together and sends them out to countries overseas with large populations of malnutrition in children. I have also done community service for a Homeowners Association and reported damage in the neighborhood as well as sent out hundreds of pamphlets for them. I find participating in community service is beneficial because it brings me to reality after being in a bubble of ignorance. We often think that we’re doing enough for the community but in my opinion, when you volunteer you realize how much more that can be done. With Feed My Starving Children, at the end of a session we're allowed a small sample of the food that we package. When I tasted it my initial thoughts were, "Wow this is really unappetizing they actually enjoy this"? But then I realized it’s a privilege to be picky with food. The people that the food goes to do not get to pick and choose what tastes good and what doesn’t because they eat to survive. It didn't open much opportunity which is okay. Or at least no immediate opportunities. You shouldn’t always expect something back when you are volunteering and it should be from the kindness of your heart. I've met a lot of different people. I loved giving advice to younger students about college/high school. Sometimes I’d run into people from school, clubs, sports, and work and it’s always nice catching up. |
Leadership Skill: Self Management
A competency that I believe to be one of my biggest strengths would be self management. Self management is probably one of the most important competencies a person should have. If an individual can not lead and manage themselves, how is anyone supposed to believe and trust they can lead others? Although everyone processes and understands things in different ways, you are the first ‘trial’ to understand how people work, how to motivate them, and to know when they are overworked. You should be leading yourself before you lead others.
Self management is 100% extremely vital as a college student. It’s what keeps you studying enough to pass exams. It’s what keeps you turning in assignments on time while you’re involved in clubs and research. It’s also very important to have self management competency at a job. You’re often left with tasks to perform on your own and if you don’t have those skills established before employment, you may find there to be a rocky relationship with your upper coworkers and upper levels.
Self management is 100% extremely vital as a college student. It’s what keeps you studying enough to pass exams. It’s what keeps you turning in assignments on time while you’re involved in clubs and research. It’s also very important to have self management competency at a job. You’re often left with tasks to perform on your own and if you don’t have those skills established before employment, you may find there to be a rocky relationship with your upper coworkers and upper levels.