I love trees. That is the simplest answer to this question. Throughout my life I have lived in 5 different cities and come to see parks and any kind of forest as an immense luxury. I love studying the intricate patterns on leaves, I love noting the changing colors, and I frequently draw the wood designs or the weed flowers at the roots of trees. I remember walking through a forest in the south west of my home country Nigeria in my early teens and hearing nothing but the hum of insects and birds. The tranquility was a sharp contrast to the usual cacophony of horns that color a city's streets. I am so enamored with trees that I find it incredibly difficult to understand deforestation. Trees might genuinely be our most effective weapon against climate change and the planting and efficient growing of them is one thing I have been a vociferous supporter of. My personal sustainability pledge is to contribute to tree-planting initiatives by voluntarily planting trees when possible and encouraging sustainable urban development practices.
Recently, I have been doing a lot of volunteer work with non-profit organizations such as fundraising and political outreach. I work with the non-profit organization The Borgen group to raise money to address poverty alleviation. Additionally, I am greatly passionate about art and illustration, as such I have collaborated with NGO's in my city to provide art therapy for young low income children. I have also been consumed with my academic work and currently work alongside some renowned professors in Columbia University such as Charly Coleman to study the colonial relationship between France and Africa. I work as a research assistant in the Columbia History Department and analyze French primary sources.
I hope to one day go to law school and become a civil rights lawyer so that I can help underrepresented groups in the US.

As an artist, everyday I see the limitations of written language. My art allows me to communicate and express feelings that are difficult to encapsulate in a sentence. The visual arts are a form of storytelling and communication that I have come to be greatly familiar with. In kindergarten, everyone draws and paints; amongst my friends I am the only one who never stopped. I developed my drawing skills because right from a young age I was enamored with colors. I loved being able to capture a person's face and emotion at a particular time. I loved being able to re-interpret objects in my own way. Art is a form of storytelling and creativity that allows me to deeply study people, places, and things and in doing so, change my perspective of the world.
That in my view is the importance of storytelling. It challenges us to reinterpret things beyond the surface level. It helps us understand our memories and make sense of our thoughts. I know for me art is more than a hobby, it is a part of me just like eating or sleeping.
As part of ​The Creative Process, I get a chance to learn from and understand the experiences of professional creatives. Successful authors, artists, photographers…have been able to use their skills to reach people and in some way personally appeal to them. It’s an interesting opportunity to understand these storytellers' own personal stories. I have greatly enjoyed listening to The Creative Process's variety of creative guests on the podcast and I am honored to be a part of this process.