Class of 2018: Femi Fatade

Femi Fatade remembers walking to the front of his introductory philosophy class on his very first day at Georgia State University. The professor had asked him a very old philosophical question, and he was demonstrating his answer.

“Nothing stopped me from doing this,” Fatade told the professor, “so therefore I have free will.”

The discussion flowed on, but Fatade’s fate was sealed. He was in love with philosophy, a subject he had never studied before.

“I love arguing and reasoning with my professors,” Fatade said. “And I had the opportunity to develop my own ideas.”

Fatade took that same bold spirit into the rest of his college career. He struck up a sidewalk conversation in front of the Fulton County D.A.’s office, and ended up getting a summer internship working for the Crimes Against Women and Children division.

After taking an Honors College class on homelessness, he interned at the Georgia Law Center for the Homeless. And after excelling as a philosophy major, he was appointed a Supplemental Instruction tutor for the department – a job usually reserved for graduate students.

This fall, Fatade will start law school at Georgetown University. He plans to study labor and employment law, and eventually wants to teach.

Fatade says the university and the Department of Philosophy have been key to his personal and professional growth.

“If I had any idea, Georgia State would support me,” Fatade said. “Students here have an opportunity to create.”