Lola Ojutiku is the last of three children born in Lagos, Nigeria to parents of Nigerian and Liberian descent. Her mother built a large book collection that helped her and her siblings survive long childhood summers. Lola soon realized that reading was the only way she could transport herself. She could sit in a cramped library in the heart of Africa and find herself exploring all the world’s wonders. Even today, her favorite activity is losing herself in a story. As a child, she lost herself in stories about snow, trips in caravans and finding hidden treasure. As she grew older, those stories became about good education, surviving her country’s life expectancy of forty and creating similar opportunities for others.
Lola became more diligent in her studies, won numerous awards for doing so and, despite the difference in the educational systems, had a near 2000 score her first attempt at the SAT’s. She accepted a scholarship to study Economics at the University of Rhode Island so that she could address why there is a lot we know in theory, but fail to put into practice. She believes that understanding the problems that we face in our world is essential.
Lola is currently conducting an independent study with with Prof. Ramnarain on the evolution of imperialism and whether or not current Chinese relations with Africa can be categorized as imperial. She is also working with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning on encoding and deciphering the results from the “Ace Your Course” challenge. From the results, she is looking to see if metacognition improves academic performance irrespective of student background.
After graduation, Lola hopes to pursue a PhD in Economics, focusing on Development Economics. Her other areas of interest are Marxian thought, Economics of Education and Political Economy of Race, Class and Gender. She wants to use this degree to either teach Economics or work in an International Organization like the United Nations or the World Trade Organization.
A fun fact about Lola is that she is passionate about storytelling. Check out her WordPress Blog entitled, “The Africanist Shelf” or her short story, “Taba,” which is currently in the process of being published in the annual Short Story Day Africa Anthology.