ComMUNiqué

Planning and Scheduling ComMUNiqué - 10th Episode Special

October 12, 2020 Ayomide Ajakaiye Season 1 Episode 10
ComMUNiqué
Planning and Scheduling ComMUNiqué - 10th Episode Special
Show Notes Transcript

ComMUNiqué celebrates its 10th episode through a conversation between Erik Novak and Ayomide Ajakaiye, its scheduler and planner. They review the tasks and challenges with producing the first 10 episodes, and the valuable knowledge gained. Also, Ayomide describes her outlook on life as an 8th grader hoping to gain experience in diverse fields at a young age, and together they contemplate the duality of chance and purpose.

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Podcast Name: ComMUNiqué

Podcast Producer: MUN Impact

Episode Title: Planning and Scheduling the Podcast - 10th Episode Special 

Episode Number: 10

Host: Erik Novak

Guest: Ayomide Ajakaiye

Date Published: October 12, 2020


Episode Description: ComMUNiqué celebrates its 10th episode through a conversation between Erik Novak, the current podcast host, sound editor and description writer, and Ayomide Ajakaiye, the scheduler and planner. They review the tasks and challenges with producing the first 10 episodes, and the learning gained. Also, Ayomide describes her outlook on life as an 8th grader hoping to gain experience in diverse fields at a young age, and they contemplate the duality of chance and purpose.

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Erik Novak: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this episode of the world's premier podcast at the intersection of global education, youth empowerment and the work of the UN proper. My name is Erik Novak and this is ComMUNiqué. If you enjoy our content, don't forget to like, share, follow and show our work to your friends and colleagues. Today marks our 10th episode of the podcast. Our first of what would be certainly many milestones. So to echo this mark, I have with me today, Ayomide Ajakaiye from St. Louis, Missouri, who has over the last few months, worked tirelessly with the podcast and me to schedule interviews, interface with interviewees and get them ready for the experience. Without her forensic work, the podcasts certainly would not have been able to as smoothly bring the diverse set of participants, we have been able to thus far. I liked the idea of, to mark our tenth episode, have a quick behind the scenes peek at how the podcast currently operates. And Ayomide is ideal for the job. Thanks for being here, Ayomide. And I'd like to start us off by asking you to generally describe what your work with the podcast thus far has involved.


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:01:22] Hi everyone. My name is Ayomide, and so far in the podcast, I've helped schedule interviews and I've helped get interviewees ready to go for each individual podcast. So my job is to make sure that they know how the podcast works and make sure that everything and everyone is on the same page with the podcast.


Erik Novak: [00:01:45] And we've had a set of different interviewees from,  youth to adults. And what are the major differences that you've observed between these two groups in terms of how they,  they, they, they've prepared for the podcast and how they've responded to you? 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:02:05] I think what I love about the MUN Impact community is that we are an organization of youth. So, because of that, I feel like there's already this respect between everyone. So even though I'm young, no one looks down at me because there's this culture of you are able to do this. And so I think that even within adults as well, I get treated well. And there's not that disconnect when it comes to how I'm getting treated. If that makes sense. 

Erik Novak: [00:02:42] Yeah, that makes sense. Age isn't a document as it were, even though we often fall into the trap of thinking that is, and I mean, this is all within the, within the limits of reasonability, but nevertheless, I feel that the youth led culture of MUN Impact and by consequence of many of the people, organizations that we contact to interact with that ends up leading to a respect for one's voice that is predicated on perhaps a variety of different factors, but certainly not their age, which brings me to the next point, which is you're currently in eighth grade. I think you were, I believe you're 14 or is it 15?


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:03:21] 14, Yes, 14. 


Erik Novak: [00:03:24] And now I, myself was quite surprised when I heard that because I always thought I was quite good, quite a,  an advanced will involve eloquent 14 year old, but you just blew it out of the water. And I'm pretty sure that the other podcast leaders, as well as MUN Impact leaders, who weren't aware of this fact, we're also quite impressed by your,  your development at such a young age. So you said you wanted to do a, you were getting interested in journalism and of course you're quite young but I, I wanted to know, especially because you're so young how the podcast and the work that you've done with it have contributed to you as a person and,  helped shape your, your short and long term goals.


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:04:09] So currently I feel like when looking into the future, I think about what do I want to learn? That's something that I think is super important because I don't, I don't believe that like limiting yourself to one thing. So I try to make sure that I dip my hand into a lot of different things because I could end up doing journalism. And I could end up being a doctor and I could end up being a scientist or anything. So I try to make sure that. I'm getting exposed to different things. That's something that my teachers always told me to make sure that I'm exposing myself to different things so that I can have a really full perspective of life. So that's what I'm trying to do when it comes to short term and long term goals. 


Erik Novak: [00:04:58] Well, that's a valid outlook, especially for those who are,  bridging the gap between middle school and the start of high school. I, I would, I, I would certainly applaud you for being this proactive with this process, whereby you try to better understand who you are and what you like to do. There's this interesting concept in, I believe it comes from Japanese culture, but I might not be a hundred percent correct in that it was called ikigai. And it's the perfect convergence between what you are good at, what you love doing, what you can get systems from the paid for and what the world needs. So the perfect intersection between all of that is,  is, is this concept of ikigai, which is, is the estate of perpetual self-actualization and this isn't to say that you get a, you can be fully happy all the time. It's about minimizing the lows, not maximizing the highest, but the only way to reach that ikigai is either if you're extremely lucky and you with one shot and up falling upon the thing that you were born to do, if you will, or by trying a variety of different things out. And one of the best,  moments in life in which to do that is in one's   teen years, like from, from your age up until,  early twenties, that's, that's probably the ideal, the ideal moment in which to engage with these sorts of things. So I feel like this is, it's an amazing opportunity for you. And I wanted to ask whether,  you learned any specific, actionable skills through your work with the podcast. And if so, which? 

Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:06:52] I would say definitely organization. And I know this is, this is something that seems kind of rudimentary, but when you're, when you have to be responsible for other people and make sure that they're on track with things, it makes you have to take more accountability for what you're doing as well. Because I have to keep track of all my schoolwork and other extracurriculars that I'm doing to make sure that I'm prepared for other people. And that's something that I'm still learning on the way. 


Erik Novak: [00:07:26] Is there any specific examples that you might be able to highlight of how your work with the podcast has visibly changed? The way you organize yourself? 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:07:37] So nowadays I actually, I write down what I want to get accomplished and I write down what are all the things that are my priorities at the moment. And then I sit through and make sure, okay, what do I need to get done on this day and I make sure that I get that done. And then through and through that, I'm able to keep myself more organized and that's how I keep, that's how I keep things together.


Erik Novak: [00:08:06] That's a really, really important skill to have, honestly. I might need to learn that from you to be honest.


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:08:14] Well, I mean, I'm not perfect. 


Erik Novak: [00:08:19] Well, we're, we're all getting there and if I remember correctly, the reason you originally got involved with the podcast, because you're one of Mr. Newman students, and for our listeners who don't know, Andrew Newman is a teacher at the John Burroughs school in St. Louis, where you study. And he's also in the MUN Impact board of directors, as well as in the THIMUN advisory board. And he's one of the, he's one of the most influential MUN directors in the world. I'm pretty sure. As it turns out,  you ended up getting involved with a podcast in a way by, by a stroke of luck. Right? I assume that if you studied in the school next door to John Burroughs, perhaps you wouldn't have been able to,  get involved with this process. So one could say that there was a, there was some luck involved. To what extent do you think you see this sort of process affecting you? Do you feel like opportunities happened unexpectedly or have you,  chase opportunities that you saw peripherally, but that weren't explicitly directed at you? 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:09:32] I would say it's actually a combination of both. And I think this quarantine has really accelerated that in a way, because before this quarantine started, I wasn't as into MUN and I wasn't, I hadn't really gotten into like journalism or writing. I'd done a few articles for my school, but nothing too heavy. But then I remember the day that Mr. Newman had, so during our school, instead of traditional assemblies that we used to have, they did recorded videos. And Mr. Newman sent in a video talking about MUN@Home and I remember seeing that and I almost didn't go. And then something told me that I should go and it ended up being such a amazing experience. And if it weren't for, like you said, kind of like that luck that I ended up deciding, hey, I'm going to do this. I would never have gone into this position. And so, yeah, I think part of it was like, I seeked out the opportunity. I decided to go. And then another part of it was that I was lucky that Mr. Newman is one of my teachers at my school. 


Erik Novak: [00:10:51] You're right, though, in that it is a mix of both things. It's important to be aware of opportunities that one can indirectly get involved with, because sometimes you do get an upshot here or there, and that might be as a result of luck. Indecipherability of the universe, nevertheless, spitting out at you, some sort of,  some sort of positive,  positive opportunity. And, but you can't read it lion those, right. You have to,  there's a certain way to lead life where we try to seize the day, right, carpe diem and then if per chance, we have an amazing opportunity at our hands. We because of the, there's a way we've already set upon ourselves to, to seize the day, we are able to fully seize the opportunity and I'm reminded of a, and I'm not a big fan of rap or hip hop. It's not really my style, but I'm reminded of the Eminem song, Lose Yourself,  where Eminem says, lose yourself in the moment, 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:12:00] I love that song. 


Erik Novak: [00:12:03] You better never let it go. You only have one shot. Do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once and I don't know, it's like, it's a mixture. And I think it alludes to this a little bit, because you have opportunities with a very limited window for you to seize them and you have a certain behavioral style that allows you to seize those opportunities. And just by having those opportunities, there isn't necessarily a guarantee fulfillment reaching of the ikigai we mentioned earlier, nor does simply having the behavioral style, but not having those opportunities. You do need in a way, a mix of both. And the only way to having that mix of both is,  long term consistency and resilience to behave genuinely. relative to who we are, I guess. 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:12:57] And I think also awareness is so important because you have to be aware of when something works for you and when something doesn't work for you, that's definitely something I'm learning through this podcast is learning, okay, is this what I want to do? Is this, is this the direction that I want to go in and thinking about how that impacts you. So I really liked that concept. 


Erik Novak: [00:13:22] This is very relevant, actually because in MUN Impact the way different programs coexist and allow,  participants,  organizers to develop different skillsets and different styles and to better improve themselves professionally, sometimes in tandem to their engagement in various different projects. I feel like that is a very rich mirror for you to look at yourself and try to better understand who you are. And to that end, I think the podcast has certainly been an effective branch within the whole ecosystem to get organizers to,  to further develop certain different skills, a different skill set in that regard. For example, I, myself learned how to do audio editing and well, just better to better understand how to actually record podcasts and then upload them yourself, mentioned the organizations,  the organization aspect and how you improved in that. And we also have,  others working in the promotion part, creating the visual components. So there's Leo Del Toro who does the marketing promos and I'm sure it's been an experience for him as well. And Loke helps with transcriptions, which has certainly been an interesting,  opportunity to learn about audio transcription programs and all of that. So, to the extent that the podcast has its mission and the intent of developing an oral history of MUN and recording the successes and the ethos of MUN communities around the world, it also is a channel for youth to develop skills and talents, and to better understand who they are in a world that's, every day requiring us to have a certain uniqueness about the skill set that we offer. So, well, I dive into something quite philosophical right now, but I do believe that very much so. And you you're, you you've been a central component of all of this and going forward, we're obviously just getting started. And for the savvy listener out there, we actually just had a team meeting where we had some ideas for how to expand the podcast, and improve it further, and it's always a growth process. And I wanted to ask you, Ayomide, what have you found most exciting about the podcasts thus far and what are you most looking forward to in the near future? 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:16:20] I love the fact that there's so much possibility and this podcast, because there's so much that could happen. And because it's in its beginning stages, there's so much that we can do to get it to the place that maybe in 10 years it'll be. And that's something that's super exciting for me to think about how what we're doing right now is laying the groundworks for future podcasts, for a future people to come on and be interviewed. And, I love the fact that our goal is to be the oral historians of MUN. And I liked that we're showing a different perspective of MUN that a lot of students may not have. And that's something that's super exciting for me. 


Erik Novak: [00:17:15] Yeah, right now, of course, most of our guests have been directly or indirectly involved with MUN Impact, largely because it is the parent organization and there's so much happening with MUN Impact as a whole, that it will always be the surface to look outward before you look inward. And so to the extent that we've had many guests directly or indirectly involved with MUN Impact thus far, our idea indeed, is to branch out and to serve as the glue that ties together the different informally as of now, informally connected MUN communities around the world,  around,  around a platform in which they can describe their successes, their hopes, their dreams, things that may not have worked actually. speaking of things that may not have worked,  what would you say was the thing that you in your engagement as a podcast at first,  didn't seem to work too well that you then modified and started working much better.


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:18:20] I think right now, making sure that students know where to go. And also, again, kind of going back to the organization thing, making sure that I, myself know what I need to get done at certain times, because when it comes to something like this, you have to make sure that you are putting your best effort forward and you have to be an active member of the team. And so making sure that you are okay before you can help everyone else, I think that's super important. And I think that's something that really helps with this. 


Erik Novak: [00:19:05] Yeah, you, you definitely don't want to,  put out the fire in your neighbors house before you put out the fire in your own, if that makes sense. And right now our team is still,   in the process of stabilizing itself so we don't have a lot of redundancies built in and as is the case with most voluntary workforces with students in various different time zones around the world, it's very important for us to be on top of our own things, because it's hard to,  it's hard to resolve the issues of,  that someone else may have encountered for generally, very justifiable reasons, but the fact is life oscillates and it's a, I think communication has definitely been the thing we've improved on the most, I myself think transparent communication. 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:20:02] Speaking of like, yes. Speaking of like the communication aspect being on something like this, as you say, that has people from all over the world, you have to be mindful of time zones. Like that's something that was so new to me because before getting involved with MUN Impact, I never even thought about like, I didn't even know that UTC time existed. I always thought it was like, you know, you have different time zones, but I never knew there was like a universal time and starting to think about, okay, this person is most likely awake at this time, this is the best time to contact the someone thinking about that. That communication aspect is so important. 


Erik Novak: [00:20:47] Yeah, it's no wonder in my interviews was most of the teams,  team members from the Middle East and Asia. I've had to do the interviews in the morning in most cases because of this. So,  and I'm still getting used to,  to using,  Greenwich Meantime as the, as the universal time. I don't think it's something that I'm going to ever be fully used to, but I'm getting better at as well. 


Ayomide Ajakaiye: [00:21:09] Yeah, definitely. 


Erik Novak: [00:21:10] All right. Well, for our listeners out there, you can be sure that there are many new surprises coming your way in the next episodes. And that even though our 10th episode marks our first,  our, our, our first landmark, certainly the first of many, and I am very excited to see where the podcast goes forward especially as our team team grows and our possibilities continue growing. It was a true pleasure talking with Ayomide about where we are right now and what she has learned. I think we all have something to be inspired by in listening to such an eloquent eighth grader speak about her experiences thus far and what she thinks of the future. Thank you once more Ayomide but unfortunately we have run out of time, so if you enjoyed our content, don't forget to like share, follow and show our work to your friends and colleagues. But for now we'll yield the floor until next time.