Ifeoma’s Story

‘‘What makes Wavecrest what it is? Strong values placed on teamwork, respect for everyone, industriousness, personal responsibility and service.’’

Ifeoma is the Head of Academics and Provost at Wavecrest College of Hospitality, in Lagos Nigeria. Having worked at Wavecrest for 18 years, she is an inspiration to her students.

‘’Having the opportunity to work with young people is my favourite part of working at Wavecrest. I have mentees allocated to me as part of my work. Primarily, I guide them to be diligent, use time well and be responsible. Together, we identify strong points and not so strong points as well as opportunities for developing leadership skills.

Each mentee is different and has particular needs. The mentoring encourages building talents like developing entrepreneurial skills and doing other things outside College work geared towards keeping busy, making extra income and helping others.”

Ifeoma told us about the difficulties of teaching and mentoring her students during the Covid-19 pandemic:

“Because of the uncertainty of the Covid times, my mentees need the mentoring sessions more than before. I have to guide and encourage my mentees towards online learning, showing them how to save data so they can effectively attend their classes.

My biggest challenge in teaching online has been teaching students who do not have the resources (e.g. students who didn’t have phones that support apps for learning, or have no phone, talk less of a laptop, nor data to sign into class, or lack internet connectivity).

The other challenge was having to spend a lot more on data. Being the person in charge of academics, it was awful to see that most teachers had to use their phones as they didn’t have laptops to teach with. A good number also had challenges similar to the students: no power, high cost of data and poor network.

We have been using WhatsApp to teach online. It sounds ridiculous but that was the best option considering that most students have access to WhatsApp, and then send teaching notes and references by email. There has been a lot of ingenuity in this, and so we have succeeded in teaching for about 8 weeks since the lockdown. However, issues of no power, poor network, high cost of data and some not having phones were big challenges.

We are currently adapting to the ‘new normal’ situation in the world. There will be more emphasis of entrepreneurship, and doing things differently from how it has always been. We do realise that we need to embrace technology, whilst not doing away with what makes Wavecrest what it is.

Wavecrest is still the primary place to learn hospitality in Nigeria, where you get personalised attention that will help you achieve your dreams of innovation and creativity in the world of hospitality. Thank you for helping us reach young girls who otherwise would never have a viable future.’’