As a child in Southfield, Michigan, Diala Ajaero aspired to become a robotics engineer.
He was drawn early to math and science, and in high school excelled in computer science and landed an internship with Toyota. But he was also intrigued by the idea of medicine.
His parents immigrated from Nigeria, and health care was part of his family’s life. His mother worked in nursing, his father had hoped to become a doctor, and his older sister is now in medical school.
Even so, Ajaero said, “I wanted to explore other fields too and make my own decision.”
That curiosity followed Ajaero to U-M, where he enrolled through Wolverine Pathways, the scholarship and college-readiness program he joined as a middle school student. He knew the university was a practical and prestigious choice, but once he arrived in Ann Arbor, he was amazed at the range of opportunities.
Ajaero will graduate from LSA with a degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, having built a diverse college resumé that stretches across research, entrepreneurship and student leadership.
His path toward medicine crystallized during freshman year, when he had an internship at a vein clinic.
“I found out that I really like patient-centered, face-to-face work,” he said. “It felt very fulfilling to me.”
Ajaero has also worked as a research assistant in the Koschmann Lab at Michigan Medicine, where he contributed to pediatric neuro-oncology research focused on DIPG, a fatal childhood brain cancer. A project he’s particularly proud of involved MRI imaging data that can help predict how a tumor is responding to treatment earlier than standard evaluation methods.
“If you can predict a patient’s response two months in advance,” Ajaero said, “then a doctor can make more informed decisions and positively impact treatment prognosis.”
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True to his word to explore a variety of fields at U-M, Ajaero has also dabbled in business, co-founding Cre•ADE, a startup that makes bite-sized creatine snacks. The idea, which he and his partners developed through the optiMize program, grew out of his own experience researching creatine as a high school runner interested in recovery and performance.
“There were a lot of options out there, and I worried about what was safe for someone my age,” he said.
Ajaero has taken advantage of student life in a variety of ways as well, including involvement with the African Student Association, Black Umich Medical Association and the Michigan Healthcare Business Club, and enjoying undergraduate favorites like No Thai, Frita Batidos and Pinball Pete’s.
After graduation, Ajaero plans to spend a gap year working in a clinic, growing Cre•ADE and applying to medical school.
What U-M gave him, he said, was not just a degree, but the space to test his interests and stretch them further than he expected.
“The richness of opportunity that’s offered at this university exceeded my expectations in every way,” he said.
