My Journey With Hult Prize At Nile University of Nigeria — Part 1

I write this article to reflect on my journey as a Campus Director for the Hult Prize at the Nile University Of Nigeria and how amazing the journey has been so far. To begin with the end in mind has always been the mantra of effective people and that was important when I wanted to participate and the end was to have an OnCampus event hosted at my school for the very first time.

But then a lot of challenges presented themselves as they always do in any wonderful adventure. The first thing was to get in touch with the right guys who have access to how to get across to students. That would mean the Student Representative Council, but with God’s grace, the President of the Nile University of Nigeria Student Representative Council accepted the idea wholeheartedly and supported the drive.

With that, we had the support of the student union, but the journey was just getting started. Before reaching out to the student union, I took time to discuss the Hult Prize idea with my Head of Department and my Dean who were both happy about the idea. Through the Dean, I was able to link up with a coordinator of the student’s programming club on campus and through him, I was able to get insight on how seeking for venues on campus worked. At this point, I had some friction with the President of the SRC as he was also trying to help from his end but this was quickly resolved.

The next part was a miracle. The school has a Business club and through one of my wonderful friends, I got an appointment to meet the executives of the club. The meeting was wonderful, the enthusiasm the Business club showed was also wonderful. With that, we had the support of the SRC and the Business Club. Now things were getting more interesting.

Next was to have an Info session to introduce the Hult Prize idea to students in school. We printed about 30 A3 fliers to paste around the school and also to make some digital fliers which were shared on various social media handles. Before organizing the Info session, the business club allocated us a slot during their business summit to pitch the Hult Prize idea, but that opportunity passed by. We were not able to speak at the event as I was out when our name was called and we were not able to get a second chance at the event. One big blow to the Hult Prize idea launch but we did not give up.

For the info session, we booked for the Conference hall which was in the last minute cancelled and we had to use another venue for the event. We used the Lecture Theatre and we had in attendance more than 20 students. Not the type of turnout we expected, but we still kept pushing. 3 days after the info session, we still did not have any registered team.

I was beginning to feel like it might not happen again. The opportunity to speak during the business summit did not work out and we did not have a large turnout during the info session. But well, I believed with challenges come the opportunity to win, but most importantly I believed it was a dream we could still win. No giving up before time. The organizing team began pulling some strings and guys, we finally began to look set. And things just started working. One team registered, then 2 then 3 and at this point, we currently have 11 teams registered. 11 wonderful teams have answered the call to the Hult Prize OnCampus event and we are not ready to give up on them.

So at this point, we are pushing forward and making sure we host the event as soon as possible as we are already running out of time. But one thing is for sure, the team that has been working together on the Hult Prize at the Nile University of Nigeria has been one of the most wonderful teams I have worked with so far. So enthusiastic and so wonderful.

And before we started getting the teams in, a friend came along as said to go class by class speaking to students. With this decision, we used that afternoon session to speak to nothing less than 50 students who would care to listen to the Hult Prize idea. So interesting were this sessions that I still remember them now.

Thanks for everyone that has made the journey interesting thus far. You know yourselves and I want you to continue to do really wonderful things guys. You are the best.