Aghogho Okpara: 6 Med School Rejections to 400k Community Achieve with Aghogho
"I went into that sixth exam with the mindset of, I don't care actually if I fail this time, I'm going to keep trying. If it takes me 10 more attempts to get into medicine, I will sit this exam 10 more times."
"I no longer saw failure as an experience. I equated it with my identity. And I saw myself as somebody who was of low worth."
"If he believed so much in me, then I owe it to myself to believe in myself as well. And I owe it to him to try again."
"Knowledge is freedom. The more you know, the more you're able to thrive."
"I'm a huge believer in educational equity. Certain groups in society really don't have access to things that other groups are almost born with."
Aghogho Okpara, BBC-featured changemaker, final-year medical student at University College Dublin, and founder of the 400,000-strong nonprofit Achieve With Aghogho, shares her story of six medical school attempts, losing her father between her fifth and sixth exams, and how she rebuilt her faith and her self-belief in the aftermath. For any ambitious young person carrying the weight of an immigrant family's expectations, or quietly equating their failures with their worth, her story of turning pain into purpose is a roadmap.
What you'll learn
- How Aghogho decided to become a doctor at 14 after a hallway conversation about pediatric oncology, and why she could only ever see medicine as her path
- What it actually felt like to fail five times: the bedroom meltdown after the third rejection, the two years she spent avoiding medicine, and how she nearly self-sabotaged her fifth exam out of fear
- The danger of equating failing with being a failure, the trap that kept her stuck, and how she learned to separate the event from her identity
- Why her father's unwavering belief, reacting to every rejection with 'that's okay, you can try again', was the single biggest factor in her persistence
- How her father's death in November 2021 gave her a new kind of motivation, sitting the sixth exam not just for herself but for him
- How she rebuilt her relationship with her faith after his death, and the dream the week before he died that she had never shared publicly
- Why the children of immigrants are often taught survival rather than how to thrive, and how Achieve With Aghogho exists to close that knowledge gap
- Her two-part answer for better mental health: leaning on people with specific, named asks, and daily physical movement
Key moments from the conversation
A decision made at 14, and eight years of fighting for it
At 14, Aghogho heard her school friend mention she wanted to become a pediatric oncologist, a word she had never encountered. She went home, searched it, and fell into a rabbit hole about how medicine changes the world. From that afternoon, medicine was the only path she could see. Over the next eight years she sat medical admissions exams six times, first at 16, last at 21. She taught herself physics from a textbook to sit the BMAT, deleted social media for an entire year, and did two years of preparation work that most students do in one.
The fourth rejection: the moment she gave up
After her fourth medical admissions exam, sat during her first year of undergraduate study in Biomedical Health and Life Sciences. Aghogho performed worse than the third. That was when she told herself she was done. She spent the next two years genuinely trying to leave medicine behind, planning instead for a PhD in physiology or dentistry in Canada. When she eventually prepared for the fifth exam, the fear of failure was so paralysing that she barely studied, almost self-sabotaging deliberately. She missed entry by two points. That near-miss gave her back her belief.
The going-away party, the phone call, and her father's response
Before her fifth exam results came in, Aghogho was so confident she had gotten in that she told her father, started learning to drive, bought bedding, and sent invites for a going-away party. When she didn't receive an offer, she delayed telling her father for a month, afraid of disappointing him after raising his hopes. When she finally called him, his response was "that's okay, you're gonna get it the next time", no hint of disappointment, only belief. Her father died on 19 November 2021. That phone call was their last.
Letting go of the fear of failure on the sixth attempt
The mindset Aghogho brought to her sixth exam was categorically different from every previous attempt. "I don't care actually if I fail this time. I'm going to keep trying. If it takes me 10 more attempts to get into medicine, I will sit this exam 10 more times." She had finally detached outcome from identity. She describes it as though life had been trying to teach her something, and once the lesson was learned, the path opened. She was accepted. She is now in her final year of medical school at University College Dublin.
Rebuilding faith after loss, and the dream she never shared
A person of deep faith, Aghogho was open that her relationship with God took a sharp downturn after her father died; she could not understand why, if God had the power to heal him, he had not. The turning point came when she opened her Bible and sat with the idea that God knows loss too. She also shares, for the first time publicly, a vivid dream she had the week before her father passed, of him giving out a million thank-yous, that left her with an unexplainable and at first unwelcome sense of peace. It reshaped how she thinks about death, presence and the finite time we each have.
Survival vs thriving: why she built Achieve With Aghogho
Achieve With Aghogho began when Aghogho noticed a pattern in her DMs: 'I love your story but I don't think I have what it takes.' She traces that self-doubt to background. As she puts it, immigrant parents arriving in a new country are thinking about survival, putting food on the table, not how to reach the C-suite, so the knowledge that more privileged families pass down automatically is never transferred. Her nonprofit, now over 400,000 strong, exists to hand that knowledge over: monthly sessions on communication, study skills and self-belief, events including one at the German Embassy in Ireland, and a community where strangers who meet at a goal-setting dinner end up building each other's logos and business plans for free.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Aghogho Okpara?
Aghogho Okpara is a final-year medical student at University College Dublin, founder of the Achieve With Aghogho nonprofit, BBC-featured changemaker, Irish Times Face of the Future, and TikTok Voices for Change nominee. She applied to medical school six times before being accepted and has built a community of over 400,000 people around resilience, self-belief and educational equity.
How many times did Aghogho Okpara apply to medical school?
Six times. She sat her first medical admissions exam at 16 and her last at 21 or 22. After her fourth attempt she gave up entirely, spending two years planning to redirect toward a PhD in physiology or dentistry. Her sixth attempt was successful and she is now a final-year medical student at University College Dublin.
What does Aghogho Okpara teach about failure and identity?
Her central lesson is to separate failing at something from being a failure as a person. After four rejections she had begun to equate failure with her identity and to see herself as someone of low worth, a trap she says kept her stuck. The mindset that finally freed her, and that she now teaches, was detaching the outcome from her sense of self: 'I don't care if I fail this time. If it takes me ten more attempts, I will sit this exam ten more times.'
What is Achieve With Aghogho?
Achieve With Aghogho is a nonprofit founded by Aghogho Okpara with a community of over 400,000 people. Its mission is to help students and young professionals from underserved and immigrant backgrounds believe in themselves and excel in education and the workplace, by handing over the knowledge that more privileged families pass down automatically. It runs monthly sessions on communication, study skills and self-belief, and hosts events connecting young people with relatable role models.
What happened to Aghogho Okpara's father?
Her father died on 19 November 2021, shortly after her fifth medical admissions result. He had been ill since Aghogho was 15 and was her greatest source of encouragement, responding to every rejection with calm confidence that she would get in the next time. Their last conversation happened after Aghogho finally told him she had not received an offer on what she had expected to be her successful fifth attempt.
What is Aghogho Okpara's advice for better mental health?
Two things: lean on the people around you and ask them specifically how they can help, not just "I'm here if you need me" but concrete, named offers of support; and move your body regularly. She emphasises that physical movement, even just walking, releases chemicals that genuinely improve mental health, and that the simplicity of that advice is often why people dismiss it.
Who is Aghogho Okpara?
Aghogho Okpara
Founder · Achieve With Aghogho
Aghogho Okpara is the founder of Achieve With Aghogho (AWA) and an award-winning medical student at University College Dublin. Her young voice is currently driving global change in education. As a digital creator with a following of over 400,000 people, she uses her influence to inspire young people to believe in themselves and thrive in education. She is best known for her inspiring story about rising from failure. Aghogho has been interviewed on BBC International News and was termed a "Face of the Future" by the Irish Times, a "Trailblazer" by RTÉ, and a "Voice for Change" nominee in the 2025 TikTok Awards. She is also an international keynote speaker and has delivered talks for global corporations such as Apple and Zoom. Through her organisation Achieve with Aghogho (AWA), she aims to improve educational outcomes for students from all backgrounds by helping them to develop self-belief.
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