Community means joy for one Mastercard Foundation Scholar

For Okemawo "Oke" Obadofin, a fixture of his childhood in Nigeria was regularly visiting job sites where his father worked as an architect. Learning from his father and his mother, a civil engineer, meant that Oke enjoyed tinkering with tools from an early age. But taking apart household objects to study their construction was more than a hobby—it was a sign of things to come.

Oke, who graduated in May 2024 from Carnegie Mellon University Africa, was a Mastercard Foundation Scholar. As a Mastercard Foundation Scholar alumnus, Oke aspires to be a contributor to community problem solving with a technical prowess developed at Carnegie Mellon University Africa.

Oke earned a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the Federal University of Technology Minna in Niger, Nigeria, in 2020, and worked in industry before applying to graduate school. Oke's niche, specifically, is in software development and cloud infrastructure.

He learned about CMU-Africa from a former classmate who had enrolled in one of the graduate programs. Though he hadn’t planned to pursue a master’s, Oke explored the offerings and decided that the information technology program would let him build his software and cloud engineering skills. The Mastercard Foundation Program made it possible for him to continue his education. He was excited about the Program’s goals to incorporate hands-on professional development opportunities and to pair leadership skills with a give-back ethos developed through multiple service projects.

Oke made the most of his time as a CMU graduate student. He helped organize several education-based give-back projects like the ICT Boot Camp, which provided learning sessions in STEM for students across Africa. He also spent a semester in Pittsburgh, where he took one of his favorite courses, Development Operations. He remembers it for how the professor emphasized conversational reasoning instead of quantitative. In fact, being a good communicator is one of Oke’s takeaways from the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

"There’s always the fact that you need to get a solution to work," said Oke. "But if it works, does it work for everybody? Does everyone understand how it works? These are questions you need to ask yourself as an engineer."

Oke plans to wait a few years before deciding if a Ph.D. program is the right move for his career aspirations. He could see himself pursuing research in agriculture or healthcare innovation, two crucial sectors in his home country of Nigeria.

Reflecting on his time at CMU-Africa, Oke found it most inspiring to be part of a group of knowledgeable people who will shape the future of Africa’s industries and problem-solving.

"What I enjoyed most about my time as a [Mastercard Foundation] Scholar was the community—meeting new people was a joy for me. It was very interesting to learn about what they experienced in their lives—where they’re from, their languages and cultures. The diverse environment we had was something I couldn't get anywhere else. I’d never trade that experience."