Jordan Rolph
January 26, 2010
4:20 p.m.
Patrick Awuah left Ghana in 1985 to study abroad in the United States. After thirteen years he decided to head back home to make a change and create opportunities in Africa. In 2002, Awuah founded Ashesi University College, a private liberal arts college in Labone. He started with a small class of thirty, but dreamed of transforming the continent. Awuah’s goal was to break the cycle of corruption in Africa and he believed the only way to do this was to educate the young. “Ghana, a country of about 23 million, suffers a low 65% adult literacy rate,” according to the United Nations Development Program report. Awuah realized most college graduates in Ghana lacked practical training in their own fields, making them unemployable on the job market. With the help of supporters at Microsoft, Awuah equipped the school with computer facilities and designed a four-year bachelor’s program in collaboration with professors from Berkeley, Swartmore and the University of Washington. Ashesi now has over four hundred students and counting. All the students are required to do community service before graduating. Most students have private funding to attend the school, there is no public funding. The Ashesi University Foundation is based in Seattle, where the U.S. and international donors support the school. Last May there were a total of ninety graduates and 14% went on to graduate school abroad. A new campus is also under construction in Berekuso and is expected to be completed in May and accommodate six hundred students. “There are times when I feel this is mission impossible,” said Mr. Awuah. “But we must believe that these kids are smart, and with the skills to engage the real world, magic can happen.”
Education is suffering not just in America, but all over the world. Children are the leaders of our future generations and we need all need to start realizing that. I think the world has finally put education as a social and economic problem. Every child deserves an education and to know how to read and write. It’s amazing that Awuah went back to Africa after thirteen years of living in the U.S. and made it his mission to change the continent. It was a major and intimidating task to take on, but he is changing lives in Africa one by one. It may take years to get people on board and to grow, but it will be worth it. Education reform should not just be a problem each country handles alone, we all need to come together and fix it for the greater good. Ashesi University is that start of a movement that will one day sweep the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/africa/17iht-educSide17.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=education&st=cse
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