Happy Summer from Davidson! My name is Emily, and I am in North Carolina this summer to intern at A2S. I traveled here from my hometown in Georgia, and this coming semester I will head to Tennessee to finish my studies in English at The University of the South. I am enjoying fine-tuning my writing skills at A2S, and recently I had the pleasure of interviewing my fellow intern Jeffery, who is interning in Nigeria. We have been working together to help bring a sustainable farming project to life at the Internally Displaced Persons camp in Edo State. I knew a little about his research expertise from working with him, and last week, I got to learn even more about him and how he became so accomplished in a matter of a few years.
Jeffery is a recent graduate of the University of Benin. One of four siblings, he has lived and studied in Edo State for all his life, and it was thanks to his colleague, A2S graduate Gideon (who you may remember from this video), that he first heard about the A2S Scholars program. He quickly applied, and with support from the A2S scholarship, Jeffery completed his degree in electrical engineering in 2023. Now, he works as an Entrepreneur Hub intern.
Jeffery brings a wealth of technical wisdom and unique creativity to his role on the EEP team. He is a strong advocate of the value of self-taught skills, as some of his first achievements were driven by a passion to learn more about electrical engineering outside the classroom. Engineers, he explains, have to be very creative when it comes to teaching themselves new ways to approach problems. One of his favorite memories is putting together his first engineering project: a fully-functioning police siren.
“It took a long time. I had the knowledge…but there was self-doubt,” he recalls. Getting the right components together took thorough research and intense focus. He thought, “If it does not work…what am I going to do?”
As it turned out, he had nothing to worry about; his siren worked. Conquering self-doubt was an internal challenge Jeffery also learned to overcome. This first project was foretelling of later successes in school, and, now, at A2S. His research skills and creative thinking are tools that have only gotten stronger since then.
“I felt on top of the world,” he reminisces. He keeps a recording of his second project—programming a traffic light—on a video that he still looks back on with pride. Jeffery views engineering projects as puzzles, and enjoys solving them whether he is coding in Python and JavaScript, testing computer programs, or wiring electrical hardware. However, the most challenging puzzle to solve, he claims, is maintaining a good work-life balance.
“I’m a workaholic,” Jeffery calls himself, remarking on how he is always “designing new projects, writing code…when I’m at the EEP working, I’m always doing something.” At the end of the day though, he reiterates that “I have to make time for myself.”
Jeffery had a trusted circle of friends before college who encouraged each other to study hard while still making time for relaxation and fun. This mindset guided him through school and now drives him to do well amongst his work colleagues. He has had to face some uncertainties of post-graduate life like job availability in the tech industry, but he continues to advance his skills at A2S and has made them essential to keeping the Hub running smoothly. Later down the road, he hopes to work for a leading tech company like Microsoft, Google, or Tesla. Our team is so grateful for our interns who are as dedicated to their craft as Jeffery. I am excited to see where this summer goes as we work together!
