CHICAGO, ILL.-Irewole Akande '17 was a member of the Illinois Institute of Technology men's soccer program (2013-14). The engineering management/electrical engineering major from Garki, Nigeria racked up two goals and four assists for eight points over 21 career games. The 2014 season resulted in two goals, three assists, and seven points for Akande, which included a dramatic game-winning goal in a 2-1 OT victory over Coe College on September 14, 2014.
What is your favorite memory about your time as a Scarlet Hawk, on or off the playing surface?: My favorite memory has to be an away game at Coe College out in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This game was especially important to me because after moving to the US, I struggled with getting my fitness and routine right. With conditioning from Coach Denis Hamlet, I finally began to adapt my game and Coe College was my first start after a semester long injury. I played my heart out and got my second goal that season in exquisite style.
What are you most proud of from your time as a Scarlet Hawk?: My greatest pride is the life I built outside of just sports. For my involvement and passions, I was able to build a really successful career in and out of school. My proudest moments came when I shared my thoughts, ideas, stories and successes with younger players and incoming students to live their lives to the fullest!
What advice would you give to your college self or current Scarlet Hawks?: You need to understand the three components of excellence which I define as: Principles, Impact and Satisfaction. Playing a sport imparts discipline, which is the basis of your principles. It involves practicing, conditioning and improving daily. Impact happens when you finally play a game and make a contribution which can be scoring a goal, or making a goal line clearance. Finally, satisfaction begs the questions, did I put my best foot forward? Am I satisfied with my efforts and outcomes? Remembering these three components will ensure excellence with everything in your life.
Where do you currently live and what do you do for a career?: I currently reside in Dallas, Texas and I am the Co-Founder and CTO of a Public Health Tech startup called City Health Tech.
How did your collegiate career prepare you for life after college?: The most important things college taught me was building relationships, collaborating with others to solve problems and always striving for a positive outcome from my engagements.
What personal or professional accomplishments are you most proud of since you graduated from Illinois Tech?: Co-founding my startup City Health Tech, which aims to prevent the spread of global diseases. After a year of designing, iterating and testing, I invented Opal; a connected device that sits beside a faucet, detects a user and then engages them with content for the duration of their handwashing. Subsequently, the device collects duration data and sends it to a cloud server for hygiene analytics insight.
How are you still involved with your sport?: I continue to play soccer within local leagues in and around me. Unfortunately, my college years were injury ridden, but since then I have kept up with conditioning and competing, to the point where I am playing at a healthier and more elite level than I previously did.
What attribute from your time as a student-athlete has helped you in your professional career the most?: Team building and bonding. One thing you have to deal with in the locker room is different personalities, goals and motivations. But in your little way, you need to galvanize all of these different facets into one cohesive whole to achieve the team's goals. Going through this as a student-athlete has allowed me to effectively do this during the course of my professional career.