ID: 11101
Human : Hanna Adeyema
Location: Boston, USA
Domain: Entrepreneurship, Consultancy, Education, Leadership and Operations
Job Profile: Co-Founder/ COO – Tenacity, Director-MIT Bootcamps, Mentor and Educationist
On the education system of the modern era, the popular statesman and social reformer John. W. Gardner once said, “Much of education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.”
With the new age focus on skill development and technical know-how somewhere along the way, an education system to focus on the wholesome development of humans has taken a back seat.
This is a story of a passionate educationist who grew up in a distinctive background and broke through the barriers set by her environment to not only thrive but to become an influence that would transform the belief of people in the years to come.
So, here’s introducing the amazing Hanna Adeyema, the co-founder of Tenacity Health and the Director of MIT Bootcamps from Boston, who has a unique heritage of being born in Nigeria and brought up in the former Soviet Union. She stands for the changing face of the global education system that is looking to provide knowledge and skills and help to develop people to become the best version of themselves.
A Unique Childhood in Belarus
Hanna grew up in a significant historical transition period in the former Soviet Union society that didn’t champion entrepreneurship or individualistic pursuits.
“I grew up in quite a unique background. I was growing up when the Soviet Union collapsed, and new countries emerged. I ended up living in Belarus. It was not a common background as I am half Nigerian. Some other Russians were Nigerians, but not so many in those times,” she remembers.
Her parents were entrepreneurs in their own right, and she reminisces about how they were always trying out innovative business ideas, which was quite rare in those days.
She recalls, “I was lucky to have parents constantly trying to set up businesses. They would send products from the Soviet Union to Nigeria and sell them for a profit margin. This was quite unusual for those times.”
Living in Belarus was a unique experience for her. She felt a level of independence that would be hard to find now, especially for a kid growing up in those times.
“It was a small place with not very pretty apartments. You can call it ugly buildings, but there was a lot of communal space where kids could play and …definitely a lot of children. I remember walking out when I was five and buying tickets to a movie in a cinema, watching it, and coming home. Then, eat something from the fridge and go back to playing. A lot of independence, which is much harder to achieve now,” she recounts from her memories of Belarus.
She was brought up by her grandparents and recalled having a happy childhood filled with love and care. “All of my childhood memories were just playing all the time and going to school. I grew up with my grandparents, who took great care of me,” she fondly recalls.
In those days, Belarus had a unique education system where children went to the same school for 11 years, so she remembers attending the same school all through her early life.
“It was a five-minute walk from my house. All my teachers loved me because I was a good student in terms of grades. So, it wasn’t a traumatic experience, and I lucked out in that regard. Though I remember it being freezing,” she cheerfully informs.
When asked if she had any mentors or teachers who influenced her through her earliest life stage, she explains, “I was not always a good student of life. Not always taking advice. But later on, I connected with some of my English teachers who helped me advance academically.”
She was selected to participate in a prestigious exchange program in England but had to call it off because her family did not have enough money to support it, but her kind-hearted teachers backed her up through the process.
“I qualified for the program, but my family didn’t have enough money even though I wasn’t paying the full price. And my teachers helped me through all sorts of petitions, and it was nice to have that support,” she fondly reminisces.
The primary influence in her life includes her grandparents, who taught her everything she knows today.
“I didn’t realize how big of an influence my grandparents were. They had to live through the Second World War and couldn’t pursue their education. My grandma had a community college degree in veterinary science but never pursued it. Then, my grandfather had to quit school after four years. But he always read a lot. And yes, I learned a lot from them,” she reminisces.
The wisdom that her grandparents imbibe in her has been invaluable, and she finds it hard to quantify all the lessons she has learned from them.
She reveals, “It’s hard to vocalize all the lessons I learned from them because I often did the opposite. I always received a lot of wisdom from them. But I can say that they gave me the freedom to pursue what I liked as long as I was good at things. So, I got a pass on everything else.”
Her summer days were filled with playtime and fun, but she remembers not faring well in the cold winter season.
“So, the summers were wonderful because you could play outside all day long. There was always someone to play with, and winters were probably harder as always. I was not too fond of cold weather. I just had to wear a lot of heavy but necessary warm clothes. And I remember walking homeonce and thinking how I can’t live like this forever,” she explains of her decision to leave the town.
That thought was the beginning of her journey to a life that would be worlds apart from her initial life.
Management Voyages
As an accomplished academician, Hanna has been an alumnus of several prestigious schools.
“The school in Belarus was outstanding, but the first college I went to was a disappointment compared to the school. It wasn’t as rigorous. It was like a step into my college life. I was trying not to be bored and advance in my studies. You also get paid if you have a good GPA, and I can’t say if I was motivated and excited to learn and do better,” she describes her experience in a Belarusian education system.
She then attended the University of Sussex and earned a master’s in contemporary European Studies. She had to adapt to a new way of teaching, which was rather different from her school days.
“It was an attempt to find something I like, and maybe I am just not there yet. But it was fascinating. It was a different method of education. In Belarus, there were a lot of lectures, taking notes, memorizing, and passing an exam kind of learning. And here, there’s a topic about which you have to write something about whatever you want. So, there’s very little guidance, and your interests propel you,” she explains.
That new way of learning assisted her in developing her reading skills and propagating self-learning, in which she discovered ways to find the necessary information and answer questions precisely.
She discloses, “But the most enjoyable experience was my MBA, and it was designed to be like this two years of an intense life of doing all sorts of things. I was trying out almost everything. And I fell for it for sure. Like getting all these travel opportunities to places, meeting people, and completing projects, I definitely tried to do as much as possible. In hindsight, I don’t regret it.”
Her entrepreneurship journey was accidental, and the path started when she was enrolled in an MBA course at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“I was always interested in innovations and technological developments from the beginning, but I never thought of doing it myself. Until I saw many of my classmates doing things and not necessarily doing well, they were trying and unafraid. Some became very successful, and some were on a path to success,” she describes.
Whether the ventures were successful or failures, seeing her classmates’ creating things and finding innovative ways profoundly influenced her.
She explains, “I think it’s essential to see it in your peers that it’s not extraordinary. It’s just that people do it, and they do it the best way they can to achieve some results. Then, I ended up meeting some of my co-founders. The most important thing for me is to be in the right team and find people who complement each other. Because definitely, I cannot do everything myself.”
That realization that she could do something on her own with the right group of people motivated her to start her venture rather than join the industry.
“We were interested and committed. And well, before I knew it, we were graduating, and I was not planning to join any consulting firm or corporation. I was going to do things on my own,” Hanna discloses self-assuredly.
Her MBA journey pushed her to the path of entrepreneurship and gave her the experience of starting her first venture.
“We were in a class that collaborated with the MIT Media Lab, Sloan School, and other schools. I think it was called media or digital ventures. It wasn’t extremely structured, and people came from all walks of life. My co-founder wasn’t even a student at MIT,” she recollects.
That entrepreneurial class would lead her to develop Tenacity Health with her two co-founders and create a product that could impact lives.
“We were grouped according to different interests around the tables, and I still remember pitching something about healthcare. We had a positive working chemistry. I remember feeling like he would be successful no matter what he did. He was listening and basically, started working on the project that was the final project delivery at the end of the course using technologies from the MIT Media Lab,” she recalls meeting her co-founder, Ron Davis.
Ron had already dabbled in sales and was talking to prospective clients and angel investors who would be interested in the idea.
She narrates, “He was getting serious, and with his sales background, he was already talking to clients and angels. Then, I was able to find a tech co-founder, John Vogel. It was a serious problem as I did not have a tech background, and nor did my first co-founder. So, finding somebody technical was the biggest hurdle. It was relatively easier to find someone who was interested. So, once we found him. You realize that this is happening.”
Making a Social Impact Through Tenacity
Tenacity Health was a big data startup that used social incentives to improve retention rates, boost productivity, and make employees happier and healthier. It was designed to transform the middle management of corporates and increase social engagement. As the startup grew, it was later acquired by Cogito.
“It was not like a burning desire to work or do something. It was very accidental. There are good and sad things about it. It was also not having a clear mission, and it does contribute to how you navigate different challenges. So, in some ways, you can be more flexible and navigate the market better. So, the idea actually did not work out, and we had to change it multiple times,”she explains.
She stresses the importance of understanding that sometimes specific challenges will make you pivot from your area of interest, and it’s important not to lose your burning desire and vision for your venture.
“It’s important to have that burning desire and vision in you. The insights a visionary entrepreneur would bring to the business is crucial,” she reveals about the importance of having a vision to pull through the tough time.
One of the fondest memories of her venture involves the first days of observing the first customers and seeing how it affected their lives in real time, which was an eye-opener.
She explains about the initial days, “Our original product was launched at call centers, and it was a community-based engagement platform. I tracked all the activity and saw proofs of how people use our product on the other end. Some of them even managed to mess around with it.”
Some features of the app were even co-created and adapted based on user feedback and reviews.
“We had a feature called dynamic goals, and you take a certain number of steps daily and get some rewards sent to an accountability partner. These were a group of three people called accountability buddies. So, one of them did not miss a single goal; at that point, he had 26,000 steps. So, he approached us with the issue, and we decided to limit the dynamic goal feature,” she describes the process.
In instances like this, she saw first-hand how people’s lives were affected by the product they had created and how their work was getting appreciated by users. “Those are the best memories where you see how your product or work affects people’s lives. So, we were able to collect testimonials from different users. And one particular user who wasn’t much engaged with the physical tracking part of the product but was a massive part of the community,” she recalls.
An innovative user employed the community forum to uniquely connect with other users and members. That’s how she would find a new incredible employee for her venture. His brilliant way of utilizing online communities caught her attention.
“We had a thriving community forum, and this brilliant guy used it wisely to communicate with his wife, which was exactly what we wanted from it. So, there are these kinds of amazing people out there who are great at community building and connecting people. The forum had made his work experience so much better. When his site closed down, and he was unemployed, we ended up hiring him,” she fondly recalls.
New Roots and a New Life
Motherhood has beautifully changed her life and shifted her perspective on the education system.
“It’s interesting how having my first child brought a kind of change in me to understand this whole thing of education. I had a good and fair amount of education in my life. It has made me realize that some things I thought were good may not have been as great. And trying to understand what makes for a good education is what I can call my passion right now,” she explains.
This passion has brought her to her new role as the Director of the MIT Bootcamps, where selected entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers get to ideate, learn, and experience a unique entrepreneurial program under the guidance of several notable MIT alums.
She reveals, “I have developed an interest in this field where I feel I can contribute and understand it pretty well as I have been a customer of the education system for so long. I would also like to see what outcomes can be achieved with different tools. So, having my daughter has also deeply influenced me. Every day is driven by different needs.”
Her inspiration stems from nature and the environment and the need to solve the complex issues that affect humans across the globe.
“Nature is amazing and has everything that humans need to thrive. Between that and education, there’s a kind of secret that we need to solve to have a happier life and better humanity. So, these things at this stage in my life are something inspiring to be around,” she accepts her newfound inspirations.
She illustrates the connection between humans and nature with the idea of having roots that develop due to our actions and choices.
“I believe that humans have roots that if you allow them to develop, they will start to grow. You will be attached to places in a different kind of way. Humans can adjust and survive, but I feel like we thrive more if we have those roots,” she describes.
Her earliest recollection of being introduced to the world of technology involves a book on basic programming.
“I never got much when I was a child, and I really wanted a computer. I remember I got this basic programming book where you could make a robot game at the end. So, I read it and programmed it in my head. There was definitely a desire to have something like that,” she recalls.
And she admits her career today might be on a different path had she gained access to computers at that age. She recalls, “My school friends even had those mini game consoles, and I grew up without a computer. If I had one, I might have become a software engineer. Looking back now, I am glad I didn’t have one because it created a strong urge to interact with technology and create programs in the real world.”
When asked about some of the things that have transformed her life, she highlights the experience of motherhood and of starting her own company.
“Becoming a mother is a transformative experience and a gradual one …You don’t change in one day. Having my own company has also changed me a lot. So, these things have impacted me a lot,” she expresses.
She firmly believes in sharing experiences and transformative learning rather than giving advice. “The young Hanna, well… she was not very good at taking advice. I don’t think it’s the best device to influence people. Advice is overrated. Maybe a transformative speech would work better. I believe that no path is right or wrong in life,” she gleefully explains.
Getting older has brought a new perspective of viewing life and understanding how all the paths, good or bad, collide to lead you to where you belong. “It may seem insignificant or not a big deal, but all the things that have happened in our lives lead us to these moments. I don’t think it’s valuable to give people advice, but it’s valuable to give people opportunities to discover themselves,” she describes.
She is passionate about transforming education and admits the authoritarian way the education system is heading and the assumptions that need to change for the better.
“I hope in the next 100 or 500 years, the authoritarian way of learning will change. Look at any country; there is this assumption that the teacher knows more than the student. And there is also an assumption that some things can be taught. But a lot of things cannot be taught. There is always a good or bad way,” she explains.
She admits that breaking the cycle of people being raised in the same educational system will be a task that will take years to reform.
“When kids go through this education system, they come out differently. So, they are perpetuated. It becomes hard to break the cycle. I do hope there are more people pursuing self-learning. It doesn’t work for all domains, but in some domains, with the technology and community, you can learn how to do so many things,” she vocalizes.
There is a glimmer of hope that somewhere down the future, we will learn to regain our individual independence of learning to do things on our own and create our own environment to thrive.
“Once people find their own independence and can care for themselves, they can hopefully pursue whatever is stirring inside them. It took me a long time to develop that interest, and hopefully, someday, that will be the focus of education,” she wishes.
Hanna’s unique journey from growing up in a limited environment to finding her purpose in the world has given us the hope that our life experiences culminate in bringing us closer to our destiny. And her destiny seems to be intrinsically linked to reforming the times we live in.
As a famous quote on child education and development asserts,
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other wings.”
With reformists like her paving the way for better education in the future, we can all be hopeful that change is on its way, with deeper roots and greater wings…
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