13 Things You Should Know About Opportunity Desk – Celebrating 13 Years of Access – YOA

On October 10, Thirteen years in the past, in Calabar, Cross River State, a younger lady sat in entrance of her laptop computer, annoyed however hopeful. Her identify is Grace Ihejiamaizu. At the time, she was only a scholar attempting to determine issues out, full of goals, but consistently working into partitions that made these goals really feel out of attain. She noticed how entry to info may change lives. A scholarship may ship somebody overseas. A fellowship may start a brand new challenge. A single alternative may change a complete story.

But most younger folks round her merely didn’t know the place to look.So Grace determined to do one thing about it. With simply her laptop computer and an web connection, she began sharing alternatives she discovered on-line, scholarships, conferences, fellowships, something that would assist somebody develop. She referred to as it Opportunity Desk. She had no concept that what started in a quiet room in Calabar would at some point develop into a worldwide neighborhood connecting tens of millions of younger folks internationally to life-altering alternatives. Today, Opportunity Desk turns 13, and it’s nonetheless doing precisely what it was created to do: serving to  folks discover their strategy to progress, studying, and international influence.

Here are 13 issues you must learn about Opportunity Desk:

1. What is Opportunity Desk?

Opportunity Desk (OD) is a digital media platform that curates and shares international alternatives, scholarships, fellowships, grants, internships, jobs, trainings, conferences, and extra, particularly geared toward youth all over the world. 

2. Who Founded Opportunity Desk?

Opportunity Desk was Founded by Grace Ihejiamaizu in 2012 she at the moment serves because the Chief Executive Director.

3. Foundation & Mission
Established in 2012, OD was born out of a imaginative and prescient to “bridge the opportunity gap”, to democratize entry to data about alternatives that have a tendency to stay hidden for a lot of. Its mission is deeply human-centric: to make sure that regardless of background, geography, gender id, or socio-financial standing, younger folks can entry the doorways to progress.

4. Scope of Opportunities Covered

OD doesn’t restrict itself to at least one class. It covers:

• Scholarships (undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD) 
• Fellowships and grants
• Jobs, internships, volunteering roles
• Conferences, trainings, workshops
• Awards, competitions, and different progress packages 

5. Global Reach & Impact

OD has reached hundreds of younger folks from over 200 nations.  It garners over 1,000,000 month-to-month web site views and engages over 500,000 folks throughout its social media platforms.

6. Uniqueness & Differentiators – What makes OD stand out:

• Curation + Context: It doesn’t simply record alternatives; it usually provides suggestions, steerage, and “how-to” helps.
• Inclusivity focus: OD explicitly commits to non-discrimination throughout gender id, incapacity, socioeconomic standing, and so on.
• Supplementary packages: OD runs mentorship initiatives, highlights success tales, runs “Young Person of the Month” options, and an annual “Impact Challenge” amongst others.
• Audience engagement: It doesn’t deal with its viewers passively, it interacts, amplifies tales, guides application efforts.
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  7. Key Programs & Initiatives
• Mentorship Programs: For deeper steerage past simply alternative listings. 
• Young Person of the Month (YPOM): A daily highlight on excellent youth worldwide.
• Impact Challenge / ODIC: Annual contests / challenges that present visibility, funding, or assist to youth-led concepts. 
• Open Days / Anniversary Events: For neighborhood-constructing, sharing reflections, and strategic engagement.

8. Audience & Community

OD’s core viewers is formidable youth, early-profession changemakers, college students, aspiring professionals, particularly those that face obstacles to accessing international alternatives.  The platform builds a neighborhood through its social media, mailing lists, and interactive packages (mentorship, spotlights).

9. Success Stories & Visibility
OD actively paperwork the journeys of those that used its platform to succeed, scholarship winners, fellows, entrepreneurs, and shares these broadly to encourage and information others. These testimonials not solely validate the mannequin however generate belief and momentum.

10. How You Can Use OD (as a person / associate / promoter)

• As a youth / aspirant: Subscribe to their publication, actively check listings, interact with suggestions and application guides, apply for matched alternatives.
• As a improvement org or NGO: Partner with OD to share your alternatives; co-host occasions; sponsor mentorship or problem packages.
• As a donor / funder: Support OD’s capability to scale (e.g., know-how, outreach, translation, localization)
• As an influencer / advocate: Amplify success tales; mobilize networks to make use of OD; encourage contributions and collaborations.
  

11.  “Go Global with Opportunities” – A Resource to Help You Go Global

In 2018, Grace Ihejiamaizu wrote Go Global with Opportunities: Every Young Person’s Guide to Accessing Global Opportunities, printed as a paperback on November 8, 2018. The e-book is a one-of-a-variety information that pulls from her private journey, years of analysis, and numerous tales from Opportunity Desk.It teaches younger folks tips on how to transfer from native dreamers to international achievers, unpacking the mindset, instruments, and steps to faucet into international platforms. For many, this e-book grew to become their first actual roadmap to navigating the worldwide alternative house.

12. Advertise on Opportunity Desk

Opportunity Desk is greater than a platform for alternatives, it’s a worldwide stage to advertise your model, program, or initiative to a extremely engaged youth viewers.

If you need to promote on our weblog or share your content material with hundreds of younger changemakers worldwide, it’s straightforward. Simply ship an e-mail to [email protected] to obtain our present worth itemizing and get began.

Reach a worldwide viewers, amplify your message, and join with formidable youth able to take motion.

13. Follow Opportunity Desk Across Social Media

Opportunity Desk is not only a web site, it’s in every single place younger persons are on-line. You can join, interact, and keep up to date via its energetic presence on a number of social media platforms, together with:

Thank you for 13 years, let’s go farther collectively. Happy Anniversary to us.