Linda Oladunn Attends a John Jay Engaged in Faculty Research

Linda Oladunni of Lagos, Nigeria came to the United States in 1989, and enrolled at John Jay University at City University of New York with alacrity.  The Open Admissions Policy which had been initiated at CUNY in 1970 mandated any high school graduate have access to enrollment and remedial programs to correct academic lacks for collegiate studies.  Particularly impactive to John Jay was the need to devote ever-greater amounts of the college budget to remedial programs to bring ill-prepared students to collegiate academic standards, as well as programs to support promising students unable to afford college expenses.

Linda Oladunni

John Jay University barely survived the 1976 fiscal crisis of City University of New York and New York City in New York State of the United States.  The campaign to save John Jay helped to preserve the University’s status and keep the doors open for Linda Oladunni from Lagos, Nigeria to enroll much later in 1989.  Faculty and administration officials united to find solutions to keep the University open.  Painful budget trimming measures enabled John Jay to remain independent.

By 1988, the year before Nigerian immigrant Linda Oladunni enrolled at John Jay University at City University of New York in New York State of the United States, to take her first American studies for the summer of 1989, faculty at John Jay were deeply engaged in research opportunities which increased research grant money to the faculty by over 500%.  John Jay had become more and more liberal arts in its academic nature throughout the 80’s, with an Ethnic Studies program as well as Women’s Studies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay_College_of_Criminal_Justice

Linda Adeyinka Oladunni - Former Owner of Daycare Center

Linda Oladunni used to own and operate a daycare center in Hyattsville, Maryland called Little Angels. She is now married and the owner of a gas station business in Rio Grand Valley, Texas. She and her husband, Dr. Joseph Oladunni have lived there for 25 years and Linda has managed her business for the past 16 years. Oladunni wouldn’t have been able to complete her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and found her gas station business if she hadn’t gained some experience working as a nurturing and loving owner of a daycare facility. As the owner of Little Angels, Oladunni had to deal with many challenges that other small business owners don’t have to.

 Linda Oladunni ran Little Angles for one year in Hyattsville, Maryland. During that time, she worked with parents to find the best conditions, activities, and other amenities that their children would be interested. She found quickly that parents were more willing to leave their children in her care if the children themselves were as impressed by the facilities as their parents. Linda Oladunni always made sure that her building was inviting, clean, and safe for parents and their children. Cleanliness is important to all brick-and-mortar businesses, but in the childcare industry, parents are looking for higher standards before they leave their children with a business.

Linda Oladunni created opportunities for herself to provide the best customer service possible so that parents would entrust their children to her at Little Angels. She dealt with many unique challenges for the year she ran the facility, and the experience allowed her to create success in her second business.
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Linda Adeyinka Oladunni - What it Takes to Own a Gas Station

Linda Oladunni is a Nigeria native who moved to the United States in 1989. She lived and worked for a time in Hyattsville, Maryland, where she worked at her first job in the US as a gas station cashier. She also took classes in Business Management at John Jay University in New York City for a time as well. Oladunni would later become the leader of a daycare center in Hyattsville called Little Angels while attending John Jay at night and on weekends. she met her husband, Dr. Joseph Oladunni, and moved to Texas, where she founded her own gas station business.

Obviously, the most important resource that business owners have to account for in the gas station business is the gasoline itself. Linda Oladunni is dependent on the local gas prices as they fluctuate in accordance with world market values and must get the gasoline she provides to customers for as low a price as possible. Linda Oladunni must also stay up-to-date with oil prices so she can adjust her prices for gasoline whenever possible. This constant pressure to adjust prices and provide everyone in her community with a much-needed commodity is a large motivator for her in her daily operations. All gas station owners across the country and the world feel this pressure.

Linda Oladunni built the business on her own. She and her husband are very proud of their family—they have three grown children—and the community they have lived and worked in for 25 years.
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