Mentorship is an important part of personal and professional development.
It provides guidance and support to help individuals reach their goals.
A mentor is someone who is experienced and knowledgeable in their chosen field, willing to share their experience and insight to help their mentees achieve success.
Mentorship can take a variety of forms, ranging from one-on-one relationships to group events and online courses.
A successful mentorship relationship involves mutual trust and respect, open communication, and clear expectations and goals.
Mentors provide guidance and support in areas such as career development, networking, and personal growth, helping to increase self-confidence and create meaningful connections.
It is against this background that Professor Olugbenga Ogedegbe affectionately known as Gbenga, on Friday 17th February, paid a visit to the students and faculty of the Bioethics program at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana.
Professor Gbenga in his talk iterated that Ghana and Africa, face several health and ethical issues and that the need for African-made experts in ethics, research, and health practice is paramount.
He emphasized the need for students, and all African students, to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset and explained that mentorship by Africans for Africans offers the opportunity for such local experts to be created and natured.
Professor Gbenga also laid out several strategies that students may adopt to develop their career goals, tips to identify good mentors, and how they can leverage such opportunities to grow.
The students who were present at the exclusive talk were given the opportunity to voice their personal concerns/ challenges and received advice on the various issues they presented.
Although primarily based in the US, Professor Gbenga has carried out several health-related and life-impacting work in Sub-Saharan Africa where he is funded by the NIH to strengthen research capacity and reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases in Africa.
Professor Gbenga was commended by the students and faculty present for the work achieved in Ghana and Africa. Of note, Professor Ogedegbe, Professor Art Caplan (his colleague) together with Professor Amos Laar (of the University of Ghana) are the Principal Investigators of the NYU-UG Research Integrity Training Programme, a grant that has facilitated the establishment of the first-ever MSc Programme in Bioethics in Ghana – at the University of Ghana.
One of key highlights of the talk is the “Gbenga Rules”. Professor Ogedegbe shared tips for a successful academic career, something he referred to as the Gbenga’s Rules.
THE GBENGA RULES
- Be passionate about what you do
- Be open-minded and flexible in your scientific forays
- Practice resilience – it is a necessary ingredient for managing failures
- Forge collaborations outside your shop, lab or group
- Know the rules of the game – getting tenured or being acclaimed in your work
- Understand the business of research or teaching whichever the case is
- Invest in your career or self through self-learning
- Refrain from ‘thrashing” your mentors because it is a small world out there
- Strive to mentor others despite the demand on your time; it pays off in later years
- Be bold and don’t be afraid to explore other opportunities
- Use your peers wisely
Below please find a short profile of Professor Ogedegbe
“Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH is the inaugural and founding director of the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity (IEHE) at NYU Langone Health. He is the Dr. Adolph & Margaret Berger Professor of Medicine and Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is a leading NIH-funded scientist in health equity research. He has led numerous NIH-funded studies for cardiovascular disease risk reduction with a focus on developing and evaluating clinic-community linkage models of care to address inequities in health outcomes.
Professor Ogedegbe is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the United States Prevention Services Task Force (USPSTF). He is a Fellow of many scientific organizations including the American Heart Association, American College of Physicians and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine.
After obtaining his MD degree in Ukraine, Dr. Ogedegbe completed his residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, followed by a fellowship training in Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology at Cornell University, during which received his MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Prior to his current position, he was a faculty member at both Cornell Weill Medical College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.”
Source: Silver Nanema
