Agametochi Okoro: Breaking Barriers and Promoting Innovation

Agametochi

Agametochi Okoro is currently completing her final year of high school at Westwood Community High School in Fort McMurray. She is an artist, an active member of her high school’s robotics club, and an avid volunteer in her community. 

Agametochi started her STEM journey by learning to do a drag-and-drop coding challenge while being a part of her elementary school’s first robotics team. Despite having limited resources, Agametochi enhanced her skills by reading books related to coding, and participating in multiple coding challenges. Her uncle’s Robotics Engineering career which involved maintaining the Canadarm2, a robotic arm used by Canadian astronauts in space, played a huge role in sparking her interest in STEM. Upon seeing the profound impact of her uncle’s career, Agametochi knew that she wanted to pursue a career that made a significant difference in the world. After much contemplation, she decided to choose a career that utilized her passion for arts, mechatronics, robotics, and software engineering to be able to develop innovative applications that solve global problems. As an artist, Agametochi views the world through a creative lens which increases her capacity for innovation. She is particularly captivated by the field of engineering because it allows her to unite her love for technology and innovation.

Agametochi currently serves as the marketing director of an educational student-led organization known as STEMConnect. STEMConnect aims to bridge the education gap for students that have limited access to STEM-related courses. In her role, Tochi has facilitated virtual sessions consisting of STEM education topics for students in both India and Montreal. She has also provided in-person tours of her high school robotics lab and delivered STEM-related activities for students in Fort Chipewyan. She hopes to reach more students experiencing limited resources and low access to STEM education. Agametochi is inspired to build a love for STEM among students to enhance their ability to create trailblazing technologies. 

Early on, Agametochi noticed that STEM fields were male-dominated and had a low representation of Black professionals, especially Black women. She discovered that males were more prevalent in engineering when she spent a full day at her mother’s workplace in chemical and environmental engineering and saw very few female workers. Agametochi also realized that she did not know of many Black women who were pursuing STEM-related careers and knew of even fewer Black students at her high school who had chosen a STEM-related degree. This epiphany compelled her to seek out more skill building opportunities with the goal of increasing the representation of Black women and inspiring young girls to pursue STEM. Agametochi started attending girl-empowerment STEM programs where she was able to interact with female peers who share similar interests. These empowerment programs reinforced her interest in STEM and played a huge role in making her feel empowered. Furthermore, Agametochi is driven to increase female representation in STEM areas because she is the only girl in her high school’s robotics club and the main female tech team leader at her church. 

As a woman in a field of severe underrepresentation, Agametochi is indeed a positive role model in her community, especially for young girls who aspire to pursue a STEM education. She has transformed from being an individual who sought empowerment to one who empowers other females in STEM areas.

Agametochi intends to pursue a Bachelor of Engineering after completing grade 12. She believes a post-secondary education in STEM will provide a strong foundation to achieve her aspirations of developing groundbreaking technologies. With a sense of pride Agametochi Okoro envisions herself saying, “Wow, I helped to develop that project”. 

Agametochi’s resilience and persistence has resulted in an incredible achievement whereby she received an honorable mention award from Aspirations in Computing for her continued efforts within STEM. Agametochi transformed beautifully from a person who required guidance in STEM to a woman who confidently guides others. She explained that her journey in STEM is lifelong because “there will always be much more to learn and more ways to improve my skills.”

Fun Facts about Agametochi


  • Favourite Food: Lamb korma with rice or Jollof Rice
  • Favourite Part of STEM:  Robotics/Automation and Software (programming in languages such as Python and Java)
  • Favourite Movie: The Japanese film, Your Eyes Tell
  • Dream Vacation: Vatican City in Italy to see the Sistine Chapel
  • Favourite Element on the Periodic Table: Bismuth because Bismuth is also a character in one of my favorite cartoons, Steven Universe
  • Biggest Fear: Getting into a serious car crash because driving in bigger cities scares me a lot
  • Favorite Song: Love Talk by WayV

Profile written by Precious Majekodunmi.