Chinyere Blessing Okebalama is the only one of the five children in her family who has attended university. She faced two hurdles—her family is not well off, and the community she comes from does not believe in sending women to university. With her mother’s help, she convinced he father to pay the fees. “My dad wanted me to do nursing which is a cheaper course, but he eventually let me go,” she says, recalling the struggle. She worked hard and graduated top of her undergraduate soil science class.