Beyond STEM

Through Naija Comm, Texas-based Eno Oduok is challenging career stigmas in the Nigerian community and educating people about professions they didn’t think existed.

- PEACE HYDE

PROVIDING ALTERNATIVE CAREER OPTIONS TO professionals, first-generation Nigerian-American Eno Oduok has broken the norm herself. She is the founder of Naija Comm, an online platform catering to Nigerians in the creative industries looking for career paths other than what is considered “traditional” in their communities. “Texas has the [biggest] Nigerian community in America so I was always surrounded by people who shared the same cultural heritage as I. The only thing that was different was a lot of people were in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields and were doctors, engineers or lawyers and in Nigerian communities and the overall African community, there is always an emphasis on pursuing traditional paths,” says Oduok.