MSNBC Features Student Leader

MSNBC featured Opeyemi “Ope” Awe ’15 as the weekly promising female leader in student government.

Awe was nominated by Grinnell College as “a leader making a difference not only through key issues on campus, but in bridging the gender gap in politics.” Awe was interviewed and profiled as part of MSNBC’s “Women in Politics: College Edition” web feature.

The network announced that as part of its new Women of 2014 series, “these hand-selected women become part of a larger discussion of women candidates and women’s issues on a national level.” 

Awe, an international affairs major from Llesa, Nigeria via Germantown, Md., is the Grinnell Student Government Association’s vice president for student affairs. She tells MSNBC, “The hardest part of being a leader on campus is finding creative ways to engage students with the change I want to make. Everyone is busy fighting his or her own battles, both in the classroom and in the campus social scene. As a leader, I find ways to simplify those daily struggles as much as possible and to connect students with resources that allow them to be as successful.”

She also tells the network she’d like to be president of Nigeria.