I became aware of AWARD in 2010 through a friend who was an AWARD Fellow. She told me about the basket of opportunities offered by this career-development program, and I decided to apply. I completed the two-year fellowship that included mentoring, as well as training in leadership and scientific writing, and six months of advanced science training at an international laboratory in France.

As a new AWARD Fellow, I attended the AWARD Mentoring Orientation Workshop in August 2010 in Mombasa, Kenya. AWARD links each fellow with a senior scientist who volunteers to support and champion a woman scientist in her career over a one-year period. Professor Malachy O. Akoroda, currently the Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, was my AWARD Mentor.