Ifeoluwa Ojemekele did not enter Tai Solarin Federal University of Education with a ready-made business plan. Like many students, she came into the university system with expectations, hopes, and the belief that somehow, everything would work out.
But campus life has a way of teaching reality faster than any classroom. For the young Social Studies graduate of Tai Solarin Federal University of Education, Ijagun, the journey into entrepreneurship did not begin with luxury or convenience. It began from pressure, quiet fear of not having enough, the point where she realised that surviving as a student required more than waiting for money from home.
Today, Ifeoluwa is known as the face behind Valerie Cake and Surprise, a growing student-born brand built around cakes, surprise packages, and celebration experiences. But before the brand had customers, before people started trusting her hands with their special moments, there was a young undergraduate asking herself one honest question: how do I survive here without losing myself?
After her 100-level, Ifeoluwa returned home and came back with a clearer understanding of what university life demanded. The expenses were not waiting for anyone. Food, handouts, transport, personal needs, class contributions, social responsibilities, and the everyday cost of being a student kept coming. What came from home was helpful, but it was not enough to carry everything.
Then came a defining moment.
According to her, there was a period when her father told her she would not be receiving money from home. What was expected to be a short moment stretched into about two to three weeks, and for Ifeoluwa, that season became more than financial discomfort, it became a mirror. It showed her the kind of life she did not want to live on campus. It showed her the danger of having no option. It showed her that if she wanted to survive the university system without making wrong choices, she needed to find something legitimate to do.
At that time, she had no skill, no formal training. She did not have a business background or a clear idea of what could work, but she had the will to start. So she started with what was available, Plantain chips.
It was not a glamorous kind of business that came with big packaging or a beautiful brand name. It was simply a student trying to create a way for herself. She began frying plantain chips and selling to friends and people around her. Surprisingly, the patronage was encouraging, friends bought from her, and coursemates supported her. The small business gave her something money from home could not give her at that time: confidence.
It was the beginning of her understanding that sometimes, survival is the first teacher of purpose, but the real turning point came in a classroom. One day, while in class, a coursemate approached her and asked if she could bake a cake. It was a simple question, but for Ifeoluwa, it came with pressure and opportunity at the same time, she said yes.
Not because she had baked before or been trained but because she needed the money, and because she had never liked turning customers away. The truth was that she had never baked a cake before.
That first order did not come out the way she expected. It was not the beautiful success story many entrepreneurs like to tell after they have grown. It was rough, uncertain, and full of mistakes, but instead of allowing the experience to embarrass her into quitting, it pushed her into learning. In her words, she would not describe what happened as a disaster, but that moment became the beginning of what people now know as Valerie Cake and Surprise.
She did not know how to bake perfectly at the time and started with a cake parfait. Whenever the cake did not come out well, she found a way to put it into parfait cups, cover it with icing, and present it in a way that still looked appealing. What many customers saw as creativity was, in truth, a young woman learning through her mistakes and refusing to waste her effort. That was how the baker in her was born.
Ifeoluwa became a self-taught baker who learned by trying, failing, watching, practising, adjusting, and trying again. There was no perfect beginning, no special moment where everything suddenly became easy. There was only consistency, courage, and the desire to get better.
Over time, what started as a survival decision became a business identity. Valerie Cake and Surprise grew from a need into a name, from taking small orders to becoming someone people could trust with cakes and surprise packages. Ifeoluwa built her brand within the same university environment that once made her question how she would survive. Now, as she signs out from Tai Solarin Federal University of Education, the story feels different.
She is not just leaving as a graduate of Social Studies. She is leaving as a young woman who found a way to combine academics with entrepreneurship. She is leaving as someone who entered the university as a student, but grew into a business owner, a self-taught baker, and someone who has also trained others.
For her, graduation is not just the end of an academic journey but a reminder of every difficult moment she had to pass through quietly, a reminder of the days when she had to figure things out without knowing exactly what she was doing. It is a reminder that the business people celebrate today was once an act of survival. Still, Ifeoluwa does not speak like someone who believes she has arrived but sees herself as a work in progress.
“I know I am not yet ready to tell my full story because I am not where I can say I have arrived,” she said. “I am just a work of art in the hands of God, who is crafting and shaping my dream and growth.” That statement captures the heart of her journey; it is not the story of someone who had everything figured out from the beginning, but the story of a young woman who faced the heat of campus life and chose not to be consumed by it.
This is a story of a student who turned necessity into skill, mistake into business, and pressure into purpose. For many young people in the university system, Ifeoluwa’s story reflects a familiar reality. Behind many student entrepreneurs are untold moments of lack, fear, courage, and decision. Some start because they love business.
Others start because life gives them no other choice, but for Ifeoluwa Ojemekele, yesterday was the decision, while today is the story.
