Between Hope and Hustle
Between Hope and Hustle episode 6
Episode 6: A Future Worth Fighting For When the fellowship began, I felt like a tiny fish in an ocean of brilliance. We were thirty young Nigerians from across the country—tech founders, grassroots mobilizers, social media influencers, medical missionaries. The kind of people you see in Social Media & TV But I reminded myself—I had […]
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Episode 5: Building a Name, Brick by Brick Returning to Enugu after NYSC felt different this time. I wasn’t just another graduate looking for direction—I came home with something to offer. With my new role as a Community Youth Ambassador, I began working with schools across the state, organizing sessions on mental health, financial literacy, […]
Read MoreBetween Hope and Hustle episode 4
Episode 4: Graduate With No Guarantee Graduating from a Nigerian university is a strange mix of joy and quiet panic. On the outside, there’s celebration—photos in gowns, friends hugging, “we made it” chants echoing through hostel corridors. But inside? Inside, most of us were asking the same terrifying question: “What next?” For me, the celebrations […]
Read MoreBetween Hope and Hustle episode 3
Episode 3: The Sickness That Almost Broke Me Final year in UNN came with its own kind of madness. If you weren’t battling departmental project delays, you were fighting to meet up with fees, feeding, or chasing your lecturers for signatures. But I didn’t expect the biggest battle to come from my own body. It […]
Read MoreBetween Hope and Hustle episode 2
Episode 2: School Fees and Stubborn Faith If there’s one thing UNN taught me faster than any lecture, it was that survival on campus took more than brains. It took grit, grace, and sometimes, a well-timed miracle. After my mother’s health scare in 300 level, my hustle went from necessity to obsession. She had barely […]
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Between Hope & Hustle
A Coolvalstories Production — Episode 1: Born Into Broke They say poverty teaches wisdom, but in my case, it taught me survival. My name is Chidera Uzo. I was born in the heart of Enugu to a father who fixed cars under a mango tree and a mother who sold vegetables at Ogbete Market. Life […]
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