{"id":110,"date":"2020-10-13T10:40:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T09:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/?p=110"},"modified":"2021-05-27T10:32:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T09:32:20","slug":"black-history-month-spotlight-alexis-abayomi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/2020\/10\/13\/black-history-month-spotlight-alexis-abayomi\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month Spotlight: Interview with Alexis Abayomi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexis Abayomi is an alumna of the Department, who studied MEng Materials Science and Engineering. Alexis graduated in 2017 and is currently the founder of start-up UCYCLESYNC<\/a>\u00a0and a Data Analyst at EY. <\/span><\/p>\n

In her free time, Alexis loves cycling around the river and parks in London and visiting <\/span>different parts of the city. She also builds and program legos and enjoys <\/span>travelling to and exploring different countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Alexis<\/p>\n

I wanted to study Materials because I like to understand why materials behave the way they do and how to change the properties of materials. This interest was sparked from my love of physics during A-level, especially solid-state physics. Plus, I enjoyed physical chemistry. <\/span>I initially applied to study Chemistry, but I had a conversation with my Physics teacher, and she introduced me to Materials. I wrote to the Materials department and asked to move my application from Chemistry to Materials, and they said yes.<\/p>\n

My best moments at Imperial included having much fun with netball, the African and Caribbean society and my course mates in G10. <\/span>Afrogala 2014: it took a lot of my time, but I got to meet some amazing people and model dance. It was completely out of my comfort zone, and I’m glad I did it. Also, <\/span>Varsity in 3rd and 4th year because the 3s beat the medics, and t<\/span>he last song with the netball ladies in metric was always a highlight!<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there were challenges. <\/span>I struggled to balance studying, working, netball and ACS. Also Menstrual Cycle health was not a focus at Imperial. I suffered from period pain in the third and fourth years, and there was nowhere to turn. That\u2019s one of the reasons I started the start-up UCYCLESYNC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finances were so difficult. I wasn\u2019t able to get a maintenance loan, and I didn\u2019t feel supported when Imperial withheld a grant <\/span>because of my immigration status. <\/span>I am so glad to have had an amazing personal tutor. Professor Vandeperre <\/span>listened to me cry and try to leave with a bachelor, but said: “let\u2019s figure how you can afford to stay for your masters.” I have no words to describe how much I appreciated having someone help me. He is the best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am inspired and energised by so many people right now. I’m in awe of the FIRE (Financial Freedom, Retire Early) movement. I spend a lot of my spare time watching YouTube videos about people who have retired early and learning how to take steps in my own life to do the same. Also, Bukola from The Come Up, she is a self-thought software engineer who is on the FIRE Track. It’s so great to see someone who looks like you and has had a similar upbringing with the same investing goals.<\/p>\n

My advice for students from the Black community wishing to study STEM subjects is: go for it! Pick whatever you want to do. It might be lonely sometimes walking the corridor and not seeing anyone that looks like you. Simple questions like “where do I get my hair done?” or “where can I get plantain?” become big issues, but you will find your people and explore London to get these answers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexis Abayomi is an alumna of the Department, who studied MEng Materials Science and Engineering. Alexis graduated in 2017 and is currently the founder of start-up UCYCLESYNC\u00a0and a Data Analyst at EY. In her free time, Alexis loves cycling around the river and parks in London and visiting different parts of the city. She also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/materials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}