Otana Jakpor honored by Glamour as a top student

Otana Jakpor was inspired to take action to tackle the issue of air pollution from a young age, having witnessed her mom live with severe asthma and consequent hospitalization.

However, Jakpor’s interest in health doesn’t even begin to explain why Glamour magazine chose her as one of its Top 10 College Women of 2013.

Jakpor’s firsthand experiences with air pollution inspired her to develop an interest in health, specifically dealing with the negative effects of ozone-generating air purifiers, which can intentionally produce the gas that can cause respiratory health problems.

“I’m passionate,” Jakpor said. “I really care about people’s health.”

Since then, Jakpor, a junior majoring in global health and biological sciences, has had adventures that include eating snails to holding baby monkeys to traveling to Nigeria.

In high school, Jakpor performed an experiment focused on air purification, specifically studying the effects of certain types of ozone-generating air purifiers on a person’s ability to breathe.

At the time of her experiment, the California Air Resources Board was developing regulations to limit how much ozone air purifiers could contain. During the hearing for the regulations, Jakpor said many people testified that there was no evidence supporting the claim that ozone-generating air purifiers negatively affected people’s breathing.

“It was cool as a young person, just as some random kid, to be able to say ‘Actually, they do hurt people’s breathing and I have the facts to prove it,’” Jakpor said.

Jakpor said she gained knowledge of these negative effects early on because she conducted personal experiments on her friends.

Jakpor’s testing began around Christmas time in her hometown of Riverside, Calif. In the Christmas spirit, she would invite her friends over, test their breathing by turning on the air purifier while everyone ate cookies and watched Elf, and then test their breathing again after a period of time.

“I got good at begging my friends to come to my house, eat cookies and be a test subject in my science projects,” Jakpor said to Glamour magazine.

Jakpor said she had to get her friends’ written permission to be tested, leading to some awkward invitations.

“The invitations to the parties always included consent forms for my friends to sign,” Jakpor said.

Jakpor also said that when she sees things wrong with the world, she likes to fix them — a characteristic she attributes to helping her stand out to Glamour.

“I think that Glamour liked that I was making the connection between science and real-world changes — trying to bring those areas together,” Jakpor said.

Despite the surprise of being honored, Jakpor admitted that she does not read Glamour magazine or, for that matter, any other magazines.

“I was told [I won] completely out of the blue because it was when I was in Nigeria,” she said. “It was not on my mind and not on my radar.”

One of the greatest aspects of Jakpor’s experience was meeting the other honorees.

“They did a really good job at choosing people who are doing things in very different areas,” Jakpor said. “I got to meet and hang out with people I would have never got to talk to.”

In addition to her love for science, Jakpor also loves writing. In fact, one her favorite classes at USC is Writing 340, a general-education course focused on expanding the foundation for effective writing.

“I really liked it because [my professor] challenged me to grow as a writer,” Jakpor said. “She pushed me to be much better and not to accept anything as ‘good enough.’”

In fact, if Jakpor did not already want to be a doctor, she would probably pursue a career as a children’s book author. For now, Jakpor plans on going to medical school after she graduates and is considering attending the Keck School of Medicine. She said she is also thinking about resuming her adventures and traveling outside the bubble of California.

“I’m open to anything,” Jakpor said. “I like adventure. I feel like the best sign of adventure is to be willing to go out of your comfort zone in everyday life and being okay with making a fool out of yourself sometimes.”

Outside of the classroom, Jakpor is involved in the Christian sorority Alpha Delta Chi and Overflow A Cappella, the newest a cappella group on campus. She is also interning for the American Lung Association this semester, where she is learning about policy concerning of environmental health.

It’s clear that Jakpor has plenty on her plate. But, perhaps taking the advice of her Writing 340 professor, Jakpor seemingly refuses to accept things as “good enough.”

And it’s that mentality that will no doubt inspire greater achievements from Jakpor in the future.