When Aruleba Victor Adeshina, 25, was posted to Bishop Smith Memorial College, Ilorin as a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in August 2025, he was determined to make a profound and positive impact.

By the end of his mandatory one-year service in July 2026, that conviction had grown into a chain of interventions that reverberated beyond the classroom.

His interventions include a Mathematics teaching method that helped a struggling student move from F9 to B2 and B3, payment of Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) fees for hundreds of students, classroom renovation, provision of learning materials, school socks and an expansion an online teaching platform.

Adeshina also used his entire N77,000 allowance of one month to pay PTA fees of 50 students. His interventions attracted attention and recognition from NYSC and the school’s alumni, ultimately landing him a two-year teaching contract in the school.

Odedumoye Victor Olalekan, an SS3A student had struggled with Mathematics for years. He recalled that from SS1 he used to score F9 in the subject.

He said: “Before he came, I used to get F9 in Mathematics, but since he came to our school, I scored B2, B3 in the subject,” Olalekan said.

The student said Adeshina’s method made difficult questions easier to approach.

“He helped us understand Mathematics better. For some of us, Mathematics was very difficult, but he taught us how to solve it in a way we could understand,” he added.

Adeshina’s approach to the subject was shaped partly by his own childhood experience. Mathematics had once been difficult for him too, and that experience helped him understand the frustration of students who believed they could not master it.

He broke complex topics into simpler parts, took the students through them step by step and constantly reinforced the idea that they could solve the problems.

As the students became more comfortable with the subject, he introduced a reward system to encourage competition and better study habits.

He told the class that at the end of the term, the five best Mathematics students would have their PTA fees for the following term paid.

The arrangement was intended not only to reward performance but make students more deliberate about reading, studying and practising.

Adeshina also discovered another obstacle to learning. Students who could not pay the compulsory PTA fee, which was N2,000, could be sent out of class during tests.

Although the amount appeared modest, he found that many families struggled to meet it.

He started with five students, using the reward system to support the best Mathematics performers. When the intervention was shared online, people who identified with his vision began contacting him and sending money to expand it.

The support grew from five students to 30, then 50, and eventually, hundreds.

Adeshina said he paid the PTA fees of 270 students during his service year. The gesture brought him widespread attention online. He had created social media pages on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram to document his one-year service journey, and the payment initiative was subsequently picked up by many other platforms.

The fee intervention was only one part of what he set out to do.

As an NYSC community development project, he renovated a dilapidated classroom. The room was restored, learning materials were provided, and the old blackboard arrangement was upgraded with a whiteboard.

He also provided new socks for 150 students; another intervention he said was aimed at helping students appreciate the importance of their appearance and self-presentation.

Mr Agunbiade Aro, the principal of Bishop Smith Memorial College, who witnessed the interventions, described Adeshina as being different from other corps members he had encountered in his teaching career.

“I have never seen a corps member like him,” Aro said, recalling how the young teacher committed his resources to students.

The principal said Adeshina paid the fees of over 250 students, provided school sandals and socks and renovated a classroom that was almost beyond repair.

For Aro, Mathematics teaching was equally significant. Adeshina’s classroom became attractive to students because of the way he taught.

“He taught so well that almost all the students wanted to attend his Mathematics class,” the principal said.

Aro said Adeshina told him that his background was one of the reasons he felt compelled to help students who lacked basic needs. He was also encouraged by students who performed exceptionally well and would reward them.

The principal said he was initially surprised when Adeshina disclosed his intention to support students, but his scale of intervention soon distinguished him from previous corps members.

Aro subsequently wrote recommendation letters on his behalf to education authorities, including the commissioner for education and other officials.

“He is a positive influence in the life of my students. He is somebody that should be integrated into the teaching profession to motivate students,” he said.

Another student, 15-year-old Joshua Taiye Saviour, an SS3 student, remembered the intervention beyond the classroom.

“His impact was very huge. He is nice. He renovated one classroom and did many nice things for us,” Joshua said.

On Mathematics, he added: “I learnt a lot of things from him.”

The students’ testimonies are part of the reason Adeshina sees teaching as more than a profession. He described it as a foundation for young people and believes the way knowledge is delivered can influence what students eventually become.

“I see teaching as one of the ways I can positively impact other people’s lives. Teaching is like a foundation, especially for young people. We cannot just teach anyhow; we have to teach intentionally. I believe that if I bring intentionality into teaching, I can help develop great minds and great people for the future,” he also said.

Adeshina’s connection to the school predates his NYSC posting.

He attended Aditayo Primary School in Kwara State before completing his secondary education at Bishop Smith Memorial College, Ilorin. He later read Educational Technology at the University of Ilorin, graduating with a Second Class, Upper Division.

Although he did not study Mathematics in the university, he had developed a strong interest in the subject from his secondary school days.

“Mathematics is something I have loved since my secondary school days. I did not study it at the university, but the passion I developed for it when I was young stayed with me. Now, I am taking that passion and spreading it among younger people,” he said.

His Educational Technology background also helped him take the classroom beyond the school compound. After noticing that his physical classroom could accommodate only a limited number of students, he began recording parts of his lessons and sharing them online.

He said lessons that initially reached about 50 students in class began reaching thousands of people through the social media, extending his method to learners outside Bishop Smith Memorial College.

The online journey also brought recognition. The NYSC recognised the community development project; the school’s alumni association also presented him with a recognition award for his support for students. Yet, the recognition did not end his desire to continue.

Before the completion of his NYSC year, Bishop Smith Memorial College offered him a two-year contract to remain in the school from the recommendation of the principal.

“I want to continue. It never stops,” he said.

For Adeshina, the desire to continue is rooted in a childhood shaped by limited means. He said his parents did not have much while he was growing up, and that the experience taught him what it felt like when people could not afford things they genuinely needed.

That memory, he said, became a personal motivation to help whenever he found himself in a position to do so.

“Whenever I am in a position to help someone, even if it is the least impact I can make, I will not restrain myself from doing it,” he said.

His ambition now extends beyond the immediate work at Bishop Smith. He has started teaching people about technology, although education remains his strongest passion.

He hopes that over time he would build whatever he starts through consistency, discipline, hard work and prayer.

But his most important measure of success lies in what his students eventually do with the lessons they have received. He wants them to become people who help others when they eventually have the means.

Olalekan, whose Mathematics performance changed from F9 to B2 and B3, already echoes that philosophy, saying, “I hope to impact others too. Whenever somebody is in need of something and I can assist, I will do it. And when I cannot, I will help the person get it and pray for him or her,” he said.

Ultimately, that is the kind of legacy Adeshina wants from a year that began as compulsory national service.

“The satisfaction I derive from making an impact, especially in the lives of the younger generation, is seeing them happy, excited and inspired to do more for themselves and others,” he said.

He believes that when people experience kindness, they can reproduce it in other communities.

“Just a little impact can really change a lot in this world. If everybody can start making a positive impact in their communities, Nigeria can become a better country. We can grow together as one country,” Adeshina, who hails from Ekiti State but grew up in Ilọrin, said. (Daily Trust)