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Christiana Adeniyi
- July 31, 2026
Several concepts fascinated me as a child, but chief among them was “tabula rasa,” the idea that each of us begins life with a blank slate, a clear board with no preconceived thoughts, skills, or abilities.
For me, this idea was exciting because it meant that anything was possible. Anything could be learnt, and nothing was entirely out of reach. Although life would later colour this lens, teaching me that our circumstances are rarely the same, that early encounter with the concept, glimpsed through the pages of my father’s books, gave me an endless desire to write on my own tabula.
The concept sharpened my interest in trying new things: learning to design, selling pieces of my writing, starting a small business, volunteering as a teenager, and pursuing a degree in the sciences. Looking back, I see that none of these experiences were disconnected. They were strokes on the same blank slate, each one shaping the person I have now become.
I now understand that people’s lives are shaped by circumstances, external forces that are sometimes beyond their control. Yet that first idea still serves as a compass: no matter where we begin, there is always room to draw another stroke, to write another chapter, to do more.
This belief is what I carried into Ikore’s NextGen Programme.
When I joined the programme, I came curious and ready to learn, yet I understood learning mainly as gaining new skills and acquiring knowledge. While this is true, my experience at Ikore has broadened that definition to include questioning assumptions, listening closely, reflecting on what I learn, and putting those insights into practice.
This is something I find to be ingrained in Ikore’s culture, where solutions are not designed blindly but are guided by insights and evidence gathered along the way. I now find myself asking “why” in most discussions because I have come to learn that the problems we often see are offshoots or symptoms, not the actual problems. I find that meaningful work, work that lasts, requires taking the time to understand what lies beneath, asking questions like “What is the root cause?” and “What has prevented others from solving these problems?”
Through this journey, working across social impact projects, developing fundraising strategies (through my placement and the Food Systems Challenge), writing proposals, and analysing programme data, I found myself becoming more deliberate and asking questions that ultimately improved the quality of my work.
My time at Ikore has also reminded me that growth does not happen only through the tasks we already know how to do. Some of my biggest lessons came from impromptu pitches and responsibilities I had never encountered before, and each unfamiliar assignment allowed me to learn, turning curiosity into confidence.
The blank slate that first captured my imagination as a child is no longer blank. It carries lessons from every experience, every conversation, every challenge, and every person who has contributed to my growth. While there is still much left to write, I am excited that this has been an opportunity to contribute to good work and become better than I was yesterday.
