Akinwole Akinbolagbe says that he draws inspiration from his parents, and especially his mother, a physician who graduated at the top of her class and then, Akinbolagbe says, “sacrificed a significant portion of her career to raise and support my brother and myself.” Trusting her sons’ ability to be more independent at the ages of 15 and 13, she rejoined her career, founded and sold several companies, furthered her education at Harvard and Stanford, and is currently CEO of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria.
That parental support likely provided the resilience Akinbolagbe needed as he traveled from Nigeria to UC Santa Barbara to take on the undergraduate curriculum in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department. Recalling a few setbacks he encountered along the way, Akinbolagbe says, “My academic journey had its fair share of trips and turmoil, but the College of Engineering has been good to me.”
At first, Akinbolagbe says, “I struggled with the new environment and the academic expectations, but communication and collaboration with my major advisors, previous students, and graduate students helped me get back on track so that I will graduate on time this coming June. Post-graduation, he looks forward to earning a master’s degree at some point and working in project management, and he would like eventually to serve in a political role in Nigeria. But, that he says, “is a story for the very far future.”
Saying he is “one-hundred percent sure” he is receiving a top-flight education at UCSB, Akinbolagbe explains that, as the only Black male undergrad in his year, the only student to have completed his high school education in Nigeria, and one of a total of two Black students in the Mechanical Engineering Department, “I have sometimes felt isolated and that there was a difference, beyond skin tone, between myself and other students in the class. They seemed to understand things better than I did and didn't require as much revision and assistance to grasp the same topics. I’m sure my initial timidness toward social interactions also contributed to that feeling of being disconnected early on. It was difficult for me to communicate with professors and friends, as I often found myself repeating sentences more than you'd expect, probably mostly as a result of my accent.”
Akinbolagbe, who has served in the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Nigerian Students Association, and as the historian/photographer for the Black Student Union, managed to find the support he needed to succeed in his studies. The most important aspect of that, he says, came from Patrick Babb, an ME PhD candidate at the time. “As a Black man in mechanical engineering, he was the person I looked to as my guidepost and as a reference for myself,” Akinbolagbe says. “As someone who understood my struggles and sensitivities, his advice and mentorship made a real difference in how I saw myself and the work I was doing. He showed me what was possible when I was really struggling to see that on my own.”
Throughout his coursework, and especially in upper-division courses, Akinbolagbe says, “The professors really let their personalities and eccentricities shine. The quality of their work and the love they have within and for their fields is clear, and they seem to remember that they were previously students, so they give the benefit of the doubt to students when they can.
“Almost every professor in every field practices and researches the topics they teach, so they all know what they’re talking about and can often adjust a topic to make it easier for students to understand.”
Community is a powerful element in providing students with a sense of agency, and Akinbolagbe says that he would like to see “some financial incentive to encourage black students, especially in their first and second years, to come for Black Student Union meetings. The Black community on campus is small, but it also seems that there are more Black students outside the community that gathers at Black-student events and clubs than are in that community. Many people in my community are well connected and have known each other for years, but I see the faces of quite a few students on campus who I never see at Black-student events and who might not be aware of them.
“The impact a community has on a student’s life and experience is truly second to none, and I feel if some benefit were given, it would really help foster the community that many Black students on campus need, especially in their early years. Even then, you must make an effort to be socially connected at the university, as not many people will come to drag you into a community. You need to seek it out personally and actively in your early years.”
By doing those things, Akinbolagbe, eventually developed the sense that he belongs at UCSB, to the point, he says, that “It can be difficult to concentrate on classes with everything else that goes on at this campus.”
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