Otteh Edubio was one of the first participants in Swansea University's reciprocal student exchange programme with leading universities in Texas.
In the second year of his Medical Engineering degree Otteh spent a semester studying at Texas A&M University.
"My time at Texas A&M gave me confidence in my degree and in myself. I had a bit of a stigma about not having been to a university like Cambridge and thought I would not be able to compete, but going to A&M made me realise that what I had learned at Swansea meant I could compete."
After graduating in 2015 Otteh he secured a job with Smith & Nephew, a large medical device manufacturer, where he worked in R&D for their wound management group.
He spent three years at the company before deciding that a traditional corporate job was not providing the kind of personal development he was seeking, so he relocated to Cambodia where he now works for Okra Solar, a mission driven social enterprise which is aiming to provide reliable power to 900 million people who live off-grid. There he runs the service delivery side of the business, managing business-to-business customers and helping their deployment efforts in Cambodia, Philippines & Indonesia.
"What I love the most about this job is the impact I am directly responsible for: when we set up 24/7 electricity that a household can now use to power a fridge or power tools or cookers, the lasting satisfaction that brings beats any pay rises I used to receive.
Considering I do not work in medical device development anymore, I find that the breadth of knowledge imparted during my degrees can still be beneficial when trying to wrap my head around the new kinds of problems I am facing."
