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Mindset shift

Gaining the confidence to build.
Hannah Ajakaiye pointing to the location of Nigeria on a wall map
Pointing to my country on the map in the JSK garage. Photo by JSK.

In the year 2000, I trembled at the sounds of clubs and daggers as restive youths circled our home in Kaduna, a state in northwest Nigeria. We waited for death, but rescue came when our Muslim neighbors bargained for our escape. The images remain fresh: dead bodies lining the street as we fled the land of my birth during an ethno-religious crisis incited by politics.

When I moved with my family to Palo Alto to begin my journey as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford, I did not imagine that the fellowship experience would reinforce my passion for public service journalism that can help prevent incidents like the sordid experience from my childhood. My journey provided a mindset shift that has made me see my place in journalism differently.

In my previous experience, I had approached work in a survival mode where failure is not an option. I would rather be safe than dabble into uncharted waters. But coming to Stanford and participating in the design thinking workshops with JSK Design and Innovation Advisor Tran Ha and leadership training with Dikla Carmel-Hurwitz from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business has shifted my mindset to see failure as a learning curve. The fear of failing by disappointing the expectations of those who entrust me with resources has held me back from trying new possibilities and experiments in my previous work life. Listening to the experiences of my fellow fellows and the various speakers at the workshops and JSK sessions during the course of the fellowship has shaped my mind into seeing failure as a valuable learning opportunity to try again and do things differently. This is something I am taking with me now that I am bootstrapping a nonprofit niche journalism venture. Added to this is the fact that I now see the value in the concept of downshifting — the process of slowing down in order to speed up. Finally, as a woman working in a patriarchal society where being nice and open is often interpreted as a weakness, I have come to embrace the fact that empathy, kindness, and openness to receiving feedback are valuable attributes of leadership in our present world. I have seen my advisor, JSK Director Dawn Garcia, demonstrate these attributes and I shall too as I lead a team of Gen Z whose perception of work and life might be different from my own experience :).

Traversing the vast resources and learning at Stanford in the last 10 months has shaped my confidence and conviction as a social entrepreneur leading FactsMatterNG, a civic media organization that I founded as a Knight Fellow with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). I’m transitioning FactsMatterNG into a nonprofit media organization focused on not just promoting information integrity, but also zeroing in on building digital resilience through innovative media services. The decision to make this change came from a Eureka moment I had at a workshop organized by National Endowment for Democracy, the Hoover Institution, the International Forum for Democratic Studies and the Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator Center. This high level workshop focused on “Getting Ahead of Digital Repression: Authoritarian Innovation and Democratic Response.” My invitation to participate was made possible through the connections I fostered with Professor Larry Diamond and Tracy Navichoque at the Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator Center, where I took a winter class on human rights, information integrity and democratic values in a digitized world.

Connecting with Diamond, a renowned global thought leader on democracy, was a personal highlight of my Stanford experience. His advice on my post fellowship pursuits and the gift of an autographed copy of his book titled “Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria: The Failure of the First Republic,” provided me practical guidance on my next steps and a profound understanding of the complexities of the socio-political dynamics in Nigeria.

I am grateful for how my time as a JSK Fellow at Stanford has helped me reevaluate my work, family life and the way I see myself as a journalist contributing to the building of a better society in Nigeria. I am grateful that coming to Stanford gave me the courage and confidence to walk a path that I had been reluctant to take because of the fear of uncertainty. As I toe this path of social reformation, I am confident that the skills and the network I have built during the course of the fellowship would serve me well. Also, I am propelled by the divine mandate of social reformation in the Bible:

“And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolutions of many generations.” (Isaiah 61 vs 4).”

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