Mofi Badmos and Obakemi Rotimi-Fadipe came together to build Itoju Mentoring, a community-rooted initiative created to support African international students navigating life in Canada.
Mofi is a program designer and community builder with deep experience in youth advocacy, higher education, and equity-centered leadership. She is a Nigerian-Canadian woman living in Toronto. Drawing from her lived experience as a former international student, her academic background in Immigration and Settlement Studies, and her professional experience in higher education, Mofi brings an intentional lens to programming, community building, and systems change. She leads with a commitment to building programs that are identity-affirming, emotionally grounded, and structurally sound.
Obakemi is a Nigerian-Canadian woman and former international student. She is a creative problem-solver currently building her professional career in financial technology.
A lifelong learner, she is passionate about sharing knowledge, and reflecting on the nuanced intricacies and challenges faced by humans navigating this world for the first time. Her passions naturally led her to focus on the unique challenges of international students, a community she intimately identifies with.
For Obakemi, building Itoju is an opportunity to answer a calling: supporting international students as they navigate the first stage of what is often a longer immigration journey beyond graduation and towards self-actualization.
Together, Mofi and Obakemi saw a gap in culturally relevant, community-led support for African international students and chose to fill it.. What started as a shared dream has grown into a mentorship program that centers care, culture, possibility, and belonging. Through Itoju, they’re building the kind of support they wish they had, creating something that the current and future generation can count on.
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Terms and Conditions for the Give The Nod Campaign
1. Eligibility
The contest is open to legal residents of Canada who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.
Participants must be entrepreneurs with a registered business in Canada.
Employees of The Nod Inc., its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, and suppliers, as well as immediate family members and/or those living in the same household, are not eligible to participate.
2. Contest Entry
To enter the contest, participants must list their business on the campaign webpage by completing the registration form.
Each business can only be entered once per campaign round.
Entries must be received by the specified deadline to be eligible for the current round.
3. Contest Period
The contest consists of successive rounds occurring every two months.
Specific dates for each round will be announced on the campaign webpage.
4. Voting Process
Voting will be open to the public and conducted through the campaign webpage.
Each round will have a specific voting period, announced on the campaign webpage.
The business with the highest number of votes at the end of each round will be declared the winner.
5. Prizes
The winner of each round will receive a cash prize of up to $5,000.
Prizes are non-transferable and no substitution will be made except at the sponsor’s sole discretion.
6. Winner Notification
Winners will be notified via the email address provided during registration.
Winners must respond to the notification within 7 days to claim their prize.
Failure to respond within the specified time period may result in forfeiture of the prize, and an alternate winner may be selected.
7. Publicity
By entering the contest, participants agree to have their business name, logo, and description used for promotional purposes by The Nod Inc. without additional compensation.
