It's Wednesday night, a little after 7pm, and even though it’s closed, the lights are still on at the Z-bar Restaurant and Lounge, an upscale eatery on the second floor of the World Trade Center, off the Independence Avenue, Accra. In the lounge, Viasat1’s 30minitzLive camera crew is set up, and all eyes are on Nadia Amasa'18 as she interviews local dance hall artiste Jupiter. Her bubbly nature easily fills the emptiness of the restaurant as she engages him whimsically. She’s in her world – a burgeoning icon in the local entertainment industry.

Following the shoot though, Nadia spends little time for pleasantries. After a few cursory selfies with Jupiter and Kofi Kinatah, whose song Susuka has recently topped the local charts, Nadia darts downstairs to a waiting taxi. She is headed to Berekuso to her other life. For Nadia, this has been the routine for almost two years; full time student and part time television show co-hostess.

On the two-hour journey back to Ashesi, Nadia works on the playlist for the week for Muse Africa, an entertainment production house she also works with. Against the backdrop of Ashesi’s demanding curriculum, few attempt to juggle their passion and academic work like Nadia does.“I like challenges, and [my schedule] is challenging enough,” she said. “It makes me work with a purpose. Besides there is no time to waste. Once it is doable, I’m going to do it.”

Over the past two years, Nadia has garnered a steady following in the Ghanaian entertainment industry, interviewing both the young and relatively unknown, to the big-name celebrities in Ghana. Her journey started with a casual meeting with a few members of Viasat1 through an acquaintance. An audition followed that meeting and since then, she has been charting her path to the limelight of Ghana’s entertainment scene. Though Nadia is quick to chip in that “there was never a plan to do television or entertainment for that matter.”  Yet she seems to have been cut for the entertainment world.

At Morning Star Junior High School, Nadia was head of the cultural dance team. It was no different at Wesley Girl’s High School where she was an Entertainment prefect. And now at Ashesi, where Nadia is a MasterCard Scholar, she plays an active role in the entertainment scene on campus, as the Student Council’s Entertainment Chairperson. “I'm not attracted to entertainment; I'm attracted to talent and weirdness,” she says. “And since I find that in entertainment I feel like I can work with that.”

Nadia is not only an entertainer; she’s a dreamer. While in junior high school, Nadia struck a friendship with one of Ashesi’s bus drivers, while the university was in Labone. En route to Ashesi every morning, he would give her a ride to Morning Star and they would talk about life at Ashesi.This grew in her, a yearning to become a member of the Ashesi community. However, when she finally applied to Ashesi, she was waitlisted, so she ended up at University of Ghana’s Business School. During this period though, she still nurtured her five-year-old dream to attend Ashesi. The following year, when she applied again, she gained admission, promptly checking this goal off her bucket list.

2016 has started on a high note for Nadia; Muse Africa has listed her as one of the up and coming stars in the industry. A list she shares with prominent names in the Ghanaian entertainment industry. Yet Nadia is already looking beyond just entertainment. “In a strange way, I think about uncommon things such as being a voice for relatively unknown people who are exceptionally good at exceptional things that people see as common," she says. 

Nadia's passion to pursue her goals and embrace challenges is drawn from a strong family bond. After her father’s passing while she was in high school, Nadia’s relationship with her mother has calcified into one she draws inspiration from. "Nadia" is a Slavic word for hope, and this is also part of her muse. “Maybe, I’m the hope of Africa in the entertainment sector. Let me loose and I will do anything,” she laughs.

February 22, 2016 - Emerging Ghanaian satirical artist, Bright Ackwerh visited Ashesi’s Ghanaian Popular Culture class to speak to students about his paintings and the impact of his work. According to Dr. Oduro Frimpong, lecturer of the class, “Bright is a committed artist who is interested in seeing a just society. His satirical re-presentation of Ghanaian sociopolitical and religious issues is incisive, and especially relevant to the class.”

During the presentation, Bright displayed several of his pieces and touched on his motivation behind them in extending the discourse to larger audiences. “The narratives that I critique are based on the lyrics of popular music and occasionally on political events,” he said. “The music culture has a certain power to influence and inspire people and there’s always the use of double and triples entendre that provide entry points into some of the discussions that the artwork generates.”

As an artist, Bright draws inspiration from Fela Kuti and his unapologetic manner of relaying messages. “Your music should be about a revolution,” he echoed Fela. Though most of Bright’s works is directed at satirically depicting popular music, he recognizes his role as an artist in the area of citizenship. “Democracy means as a citizen you must contribute your voice, you shouldn’t just do it once every four years,” he said. “It’s a sense of responsibility that drives me to send out some of the messages. Everyone who does what they must do, or does the right thing or goes against that grain should expect some backlash. But I’ll rather try and achieve something good, than be quiet and watch bad things happen. I may not go and march in the streets, but my painting may inspire someone to march.”

Popular art is significant in the way it is able to communicate varying messages to different demographics. “The importance of popular art, in the vein of Bright’s satirical works, lies in how first, it pushes a further discussion of thorny issues in a humorous context,” Dr. Frimpong said. “Another impact of such works is related to how they allow varying audiences, both formally literate and illiterate, to access and debate current issues in Ghana.”  

February 22, 2016 - Emerging Ghanaian satirical artist, Bright Ackwerh visited Ashesi’s Ghanaian Popular Culture class to speak to students about his paintings and the impact of his work. According to Dr. Oduro Frimpong, lecturer of the class, “Bright is a committed artist who is interested in seeing a just society. His satirical re-presentation of Ghanaian sociopolitical and religious issues is incisive, and especially relevant to the class.”

During the presentation, Bright displayed several of his pieces and touched on his motivation behind them in extending the discourse to larger audiences. “The narratives that I critique are based on the lyrics of popular music and occasionally on political events,” he said. “The music culture has a certain power to influence and inspire people and there’s always the use of double and triples entendre that provide entry points into some of the discussions that the artwork generates.”

As an artist, Bright draws inspiration from Fela Kuti and his unapologetic manner of relaying messages. “Your music should be about a revolution,” he echoed Fela. Though most of Bright’s works is directed at satirically depicting popular music, he recognizes his role as an artist in the area of citizenship. “Democracy means as a citizen you must contribute your voice, you shouldn’t just do it once every four years,” he said. “It’s a sense of responsibility that drives me to send out some of the messages. Everyone who does what they must do, or does the right thing or goes against that grain should expect some backlash. But I’ll rather try and achieve something good, than be quiet and watch bad things happen. I may not go and march in the streets, but my painting may inspire someone to march.”

Popular art is significant in the way it is able to communicate varying messages to different demographics. “The importance of popular art, in the vein of Bright’s satirical works, lies in how first, it pushes a further discussion of thorny issues in a humorous context,” Dr. Frimpong said. “Another impact of such works is related to how they allow varying audiences, both formally literate and illiterate, to access and debate current issues in Ghana.”  

[One of Bright's most recent pieces]

From January 21 – 25, 2016, Ashesi’s Melton fellows - Sabelo Dube ‘18, Beryl Nana Ama Akuffo-Kwapong ‘18, Tito Magero ‘18, Vladimir Fomene ‘18 and Nana Kwame Oteng Darkwah ‘18 joined fellows from around the globe, for the New Fellow Orientation program in Darmstadt, Germany. The program culminated an eight-month  virtual training program they underwent to becoming fellows, while giving them an opportunity to interact and deepen connections with other first-year fellows.

The team writes about their experiences and what it represented in their growth as Global citizens.

Just like any other trip, you are never really prepared until you reach your destination. Even then, the sudden reality when you finally do is usually far removed from what you expected. Darmstadt was quite a far cry from the usual bustle that characterizes most African cities; forget the cold and language differences. The parts we visited in Darmstadt were quiet, systematic and orderly; though such disparities make you appreciate Africa and in some instances, see opportunities for development.

This 5-day trip in Germany crowned our eight-month online initiation course in becoming Melton fellows. Finally, everyone got the opportunity to put the faces to the voices, and the chance to ask all the “whys” and “hows” of the various continents and cultures we represented. We engaged in workshops, skill-building sessions and conversations on global citizenship. In addition, we were taught how to design solutions for global issues and run through sessions of thriving in intercultural spaces. The entire experience re-shaped our understanding of global citizenship; a life and an unending experience.

After a few days, lifelong friendships had begun and our nights out, in and around Darmstadt gave us a new feel of life and perspectives. As a team from Ashesi, we bonded for some reason. Indirectly, as we met and built new friendships with the other fellows from around the world, we tightened our team spirit and dynamics. In the least, this trip reinforced the notion that race is a social construct- that under the fleshy skin color, we are fundamentally human. And even though different from our daily experiences and conversation, we laughed at the same jokes, found conversations and certain stories relatable and danced to the same music and enjoyed it also. It was space to find out who we were, our interest and passions.

We were able to appreciate our individuality while in the midst of so much diversity in thoughts, cultures and nationalities. This experience for us, defined what it means to be a global citizen, being who you are and immersing yourself in getting to know others.

Following the trip, the Melton fellows from Ashesi will be implementing projects aimed at addressing pressing global issues, on campus. The next stop for the Melton Fellows will be in Chile, at the Melton Global Citizenship Conference (GCC) to be held in September 2016.

At the finale of the 2016 MTN “Heroes of Change”, an initiative that seeks to celebrate individuals making impact in their communities, the line-up of performing artistes was no surprise; some of Ghana's finest musicians and performers including Becca, Kwabena Kwabena and saxophonist Steve Bedi were on the bill. However, one name, Abena, seemed vaguely familiar to many. To her credit though, Abena, whose real name is Christine Buckle, was not necessarily new to the spotlight. Just a few months earlier, she had been the runner up of MTN Hitmaker, a reality television show aimed at unearthing “the next big thing” in the music industry in Ghana. Yet her stock, especially on a stage this big, was largely unproven.

Christine has been singing for as long as she can remember. “I sang in public for the first time when I was five, at my grandmother’s birthday party,” she said. “I was comfortable singing, and it sounded good in my ears.” Since then, Christine has grown into a more polished musician. Her assured stage presence and calm demeanor compliment the powerful voice that flows from her. While waiting to get into college, Christine was looking for ways to grow as a singer. But when her mother suggested trying out for the MTN Hitmaker reality show, she was hesitant. “I didn’t want to be part of the whole reality show experience,” she said. However, she eventually agreed to her mother’s persistence.  

In the midst of the theatrics that most reality shows are rapt with, Christine’s talent and confidence grew. Not only did she keep audiences spell bound, but also her performance raised the bar for women in the competition. By the time the competition ended, her second place was farther than any woman had attained at the competition. And at 18, she remains one of the youngest competitors to achieve that position.

While Christine was keeping audiences spellbound week in-week out during the competition, she had enrolled as a freshman at Ashesi. So she had to combine dealing with the wet-eared moments most freshmen go through, and the enduring demands of the competition, which by this time had garnered a national following. “Honestly, I was scared when I was going to come to school and also go for [the show], she said. "I prayed for strength.” Now she has learned how to combine her rigorous Business Administration major at Ashesi to her budding singing career.

Christine is not afraid anymore; she has set her sights set on greater things. “This is just the first step, so I can gain some recognition,” she says. Lately, when Christine sings, she takes the audience on a journey. “I wouldn’t say it is heaven specifically, but it’s such a beautiful place,“ she says. "There's just no negativity; but it's a space I can control.” And that is exactly what she did at the MTN Heroes of Change event.

By the time she was done singing, a breathtaking rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World”, there was no doubting whether she had earned the right to share this stage with Ghana’s finest. Her performance that night was a shoulder-to-shoulder act to Becca’s and Kwabena Kwabena’s. She has become force a to be reckoned with. As is her voice. 

In her junior year at Ashesi, alum Amonua Tabicca ’13, was a member of the Ashesi Student Council’s Entertainment Committee. As part of her role then, she would spend a lot of time thinking of creative ways to make events on campus more exciting for students. It was a tough task, but in spending so much time making the events work, Amonua discovered a role she thrived in: communication and advertising.

“My friends, especially my roommates at Ashesi, always told me I would start a career in communication,” she says. “They used to tell me I was good at it.” They were right. 

After initially joining Ogilvy & Mather Ghana as an Account Executive, Amonua was eventually moved to join the team at the company’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya – Ogilvy and Mather Africa. There, she is in a more senior role of Account Manager, where she is heavily involved in planning and coordinating advertising campaigns for some of the ad agency’s biggest brands and clients.

Yet Amonua had never quite known what she wanted to do after graduating from Ashesi, despite the comments from friends, and the fact that she had enjoyed her Marketing and Branding classes. It took a gentle push from the Career Services Office on campus to get her to do her first internship with an ad agency, where she really connected with the prospect.

“Abigail at the Career Services Office was my fairy godmother,” she says. “In my junior year, she had expressed concern that I wasn’t exploring enough internships to build work experience. In our conversations, I mentioned my penchant for communication, and she helped me get an internship with an advertising agency startup. That hooked me in.” 

Looking back, Amonua appreciates how the experiences at Ashesi helped her transition into her career. “Most times, we are managing projects, attending client meetings, having sessions with our Creative Directors and working through unforeseen roadblocks, she explains. “Being in this kind of role means you have to be able to reach into different skillsets, and be dynamic; exactly what Ashesi prepares you for.”  

Now, she is driven by how much of a difference stronger storytelling can make for Africa’s brands. “Working with a pan-African organisation helps you really understand the landscape of African markets,” Amonua says. “We get so intrigued with what’s happening elsewhere in the world, but there is so much happening within Africa as well. There are so many people offering great products and services that are unheard of because they are not advertising right. That’s why I love my work; everyday I get to help brands tell their stories better.”

Her team in Nairobi is a diverse one, and Amonua believes that all the cultural experiences they share allow her to gain a broader view of the world. She credits her continuous growth to these teams that she works with, and the people who lead them.

“I have been fortunate to have the best bosses so far since I have started work. In Ghana, my boss Gil Kemami was a big influence. He taught me to never be content with the present and always think of the next step at work and in life. My current boss and the CEO of Ogilvy and Mather, Nadja Bellan-White, is my driving spirit. She offered me the opportunity to grow further by inviting me to Kenya. She has taught me that passion and diligence go hand in hand at work, and is always ready to give her support in nurturing many of our ideas at work.”

March 2, 2016 - Dr. Daniel E. Bentil, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Vermont, spoke on mathematics modeling, under the topic “Mathematical Models of Love and Happiness” at the Ashesi Mathematics Seminar Series.

For the presentation he built on scenarios from the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet, as an anecdote to illustrate how mathematical modeling can be applied in social psychology. “The key idea that I wanted to project to the students is that modeling goes through a cyclical affair, and a key example is the love dynamics between Romeo and Juliet,” he said. “So I chose a topic in social psychology that involves love dynamics between two people, using some very simple differential equations models to describe the love dynamics.”

Professor Bentil further shared the importance of mathematical modeling as a viable technique not only social psychology but also as a significant step in the engineering process. “Modeling is extremely important, especially for engineering students,” he emphasized. “Before an engineer puts together a gadget, he or she should think of modeling the concept first. If there is no mathematical model they’ll have to keep ‘re-inventing’ until they get it right. So mathematical modeling gives a better approach to better designs of equipment. It is very useful for engineers to know some basic underpinnings of mathematical modeling before they embark on manufacturing gadgets.”

The Ashesi Mathematics Seminar Series creates an opportunity for students to experience math beyond its abstraction. “The aim of the seminar was to help students appreciate that mathematical concepts and skills can be applied in all areas of one’s life, even in complex situations such as love as well as happiness,” said Kwame Atta Gyamfi, Pre-Calculus Lecturer at Ashesi. “Another motivation is to help our premier engineering class to see the need for the math courses required of them throughout their curriculum. We want them to have a feel of how basic and fundamental concepts are used to describe natural phenomena via mathematical models. This would help them to appreciate the value of thinking computationally as an engineer.”

Professor D. Bentil is an Applied Mathematics Professor at the University of Vermont where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics within the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, in the College of Medicine. He is currently a Fulbright Specialist visiting the University of Mines and Technology UMaT here in Ghana. In the United States, he is a recipient of the US National Science Foundation’s Career Award; serves on a Review Panel Member for the United States National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. His research work interfaces applied mathematics and the biomedical sciences, including designing appropriate mathematics courses for life science majors. He previous projects have involved constructing mathematical models which capture key biological processes including Muscle Physiology, Lung Physiology and Renal Physiology Professor's Bentil full profile. 

Over sixty companies have registered to participate in Ashesi’s Career Fair 2016 to be held on Wednesday, 16th March 2016. The Ashesi Career Fair is a one-day annual event that brings the entire Ashesi community (students, alumni, faculty and staff) together with representatives from various organisations to interact at various career development levels.

Sponsors for this year’s event include Tullow Ghana Limited, General Electric, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Millward Brown, BEIGE Academy, Dalex Finance, Genkey, Societe Generale Ghana, VOTO Mobile, Development Alternatives Incorporated (Africa Lead II), Databank Financial Services Limited and Kaysens Group Company Limited.

The Fair helps the Ashesi community gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist in the work environment and also creates a platform for organisations to recruit Ashesi students and alumni.

“Every year, the Career Fair opens Ashesi’s doors to leading institutions in Ghana for networking, brainstorming and sharing recruitment opportunities with the community,” said Abigail Lartey, Assistant Director of Career Services

“We are particularly excited about the diverse industry representation we have this year and some of the new sessions we have planned; speed interviews, faculty and employers roundtable discussion and a new competition – Ashesi's most enterprising business pitch competition, to mention a few. We are confident that all of these will give institutions and Ashesi an even more intimate and focused opportunity for engagement.”

Accra, March 9, 2016 – Faculty and staff from Ashesi engaged with a cross section of professionals from the finance and investment sectors in Ghana, to brainstorm curriculum formats for the Ghana Climate Innovation Center (GCIC).

In order to engage the incubatees of the GCIC in a strong incubator program, the team from Ashesi is currently developing curriculum for courses and modules that will better equip the incubatees to build their ventures for funding and scalability. The session, led by Fred McBagonluri, Head of Engineering School and Executive Director of the GCIC, involved dialoguing with the industry professionals in shaping the setup of the GCIC curriculum.

“Future graduates from the GCIC will have to access funding from financial facilities as well as build business relationships with the thriving venture capital, financial and entrepreneur communities in Ghana,” he said.  “It is therefore important to include these stakeholders in shaping ultimate outcomes for these graduates. The question that the session was intended to address was: what basic knowledge should graduates from GCIC have in order to be: the right future clients of your facility and also to be successful as entrepreneurs and leaders of their communities?”

Following the dialogue session, some members of Ashesi's faculty led a design thinking session aimed at building  frameworks that will guide the caliber of incubatees who would be admitted to the innovation center.

“We needed to get an understanding of who a GCIC incubatee is and how to engage with them in the training program,” said Dr. Gordon Adomdza of the Business Administration Department. “So we used an empathy map to characterize them and a journey map to get a sense of their experience points in a training program. Compared to a typical brainstorm session, using the empathy map and journey maps made for a more structured and empathetic conversation which also gave us a few aha moments because people were suddenly thinking about the incubatee in ways they had not before."

Ahead of the launch of the GCIC, the session also served as an opportunity to gauge the interests of the professionals with regards to the  kind of technologies they expect to see come out from the GCIC.

"The establishment of GCIC is timely because Ghana and indeed the developing world desperately needs commercially viable and sustainable alternative solutions for the power, water, agriculture and waste management sectors," said Mirabelle Moreaux, Investment Director at Injaro Investments. "The success of the GCIC will hinge on how many of the participants' ideas ultimately receive venture capital funding to be scaled up. As such, having the feedback of the venture capital or private equity partners to design a practical program ensures that factors that inform the investment decision-making process are addressed for each participant."

The objective of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center is to establish local institutional capacity to support Ghanaian entrepreneurs and new ventures involved in developing profitable and locally-appropriate solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through its programs, activities and financing, the GCIC and its network of partners and stakeholders will provide a country-driven approach to solving climate, energy and resource challenges and support economic development through job creation.

Jessica Quaye’s weekends are atypical for a freshman, even for one who is part of Ashesi's first Engineering class. After a busy week at school, she chooses to spend her Saturdays away from campus with a group of engineers and other professionals working steadily on solutions aimed at straightening up the public transportation system in Ghana. It is work that compliments her bigger dream of engineering tools to improve forensics in Ghana.

“Generally, more developed countries have better profiling of the citizenry, so they are able to trace crimes a lot more easily,” she says. “In helping to solve crimes in Ghana, I want to have a hand in the construction of devices that can aid tracking, with regards to circuitry and design, and which will suit the Ghanaian climate. Electrical engineering will give me that background.”

The same drive that fuels these goals is what earned Jessica the honour of the Overall Best Student in West Africa in the 2015 Secondary School Examination. Jessica was also won the Best Student in Science, a remarkable achievement. As part of her award, Jessica receives a full scholarship from the Universal Merchant Bank in Ghana. At a ceremony held in Accra this week, she was commended by Ghana's Minister of Education, who also presented the awards to Jessica and other top performing students. 

While a student at Wesley Girl’s High School, Jessica wore several hats. Not only was she a high achieving student in the classroom, but also, she played significant leadership roles in the debating and robotics teams and was an unfailing presence at the school's fellowship; a "source of  inspiration" for her Christian faith.

“She combined her academic prowess with sterling leadership skills, and her work as a prefect was applauded by all,” said Mrs. Betty Djokoto, Headmistress of Wesley Girls’ High School. “Jessica is determined and purposeful.”

After attending the Ashesi Innovation Experience(AIX) while still in high school, where she got to work on robotics projects, she was convinced Ashesi would give her the right tools to accomplish her goals.Now as a student, she gets the chance to extend her passion into a more definitive career path. From weekends dedicated to improving traffic in Ghana to late nights spent researching on forensics, Jessica is excited about contributing towards a promising future for Ghana.

“I wanted to follow my passions and do the things I enjoyed, so I joined the robotics club at Wesley girls, where I became the team captain," she says. "After attending the Ashesi Innovation Experience, I saw enough to know that Ashesi could help me achieve my career goals. I wanted contact hours with teachers where I could probe deeper and learn in an environment where I could thrive and be supported with an open window of opportunities. And even though we will be stretched beyond what we think we can bear, I'm ready to enjoy the experience." 

March 16, 2016 – Over 50 organisations from various industries in Ghana took part in the tenth Ashesi Career Fair, organized by the Career Services Office. Sponsors of this year’s event included Tullow Ghana Limited, General Electric, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Millward Brown, BEIGE Academy, Dalex Finance, Genkey, Societe Generale Ghana, VOTO Mobile, Development Alternatives Incorporated (Africa Lead II), Databank Financial Services Limited and Kaysens Groupe of Companies.

The Ashesi Career Fair is a one-day annual event that brings the entire Ashesi community (students, alumni, faculty and staff) together with representatives from various organisations to interact at various career development levels. The fair helps the community gain an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities that exist in the professional environment and also creates a platform for organisations to recruit Ashesi students and alumni.

“It was a great session, especially seeing a variety of new and even smaller companies here at the fair, as opposed to just the traditional ones,” said Afua Aidoo ’11, Commercial Operations Leader (Healthcare), General Electric. “It was also a great opportunity to see what other companies are doing to draw from the same talent pool as we are. I also found the quality of engagement from students incredibly amazing. They are doing amazing things outside the classroom and also coming up with ways to keep themselves abreast with what’s happening in the world today.”

The fair had a number of panel sessions and competitions that run alongside. The Speed Interviews, Alumni Stand and Faculty-Employer panels gave students, faculty and employers a chance to engage with one another and share expectations with regards to the professional world. The competitions including Best Enterprising Pitch, Personal Branding and the Elevator Pitch tested students’ skills in public speaking, personal grooming and business etiquette.

“The speed interviews gave me exclusive and direct contact to employers in trying to secure jobs and internships,” said Nana Yaw Akonnor ’16. “The earlier series of interviews helped me improve on strengths and weaknesses that I was able to apply to subsequent interviews within the same session. Some of the new initiatives like the Student – Employment interaction were also very helpful; giving us the chance to learn about the expectations employers have of students.”

“I have experienced five Career Fairs to date and each year the fair simply gets better and better,” said Abigail Welbeck, Assistant Director of Career Services. “This year the Career Services team decided to seek out novel ways to ensure greater employer satisfaction at the fair and so we introduced speed interviewing, a faculty – employer roundtable discussion as well as a student– employer roundtable discussion. By this we also ensured more participation from the Ashesi community. The fair was a great success and we definitely could not have achieved this without the help of the Ashesi community, our cherished sponsors, distinguished judges and guest speakers. We look forward to an even greater fair next year as we will be taking key lessons from our 'employer evaluations' of this year’s fair, to increase our employer outreach and also invite more engineering firms.”

At the end of the fair, the Career Service recognized sponsors of the event while students who excelled in the various competitions were presented with awards.

September 17, 2016 - It is not often that the Ashesi community takes a break from work in the middle of the semester to wind down. And that's exactly what happened for close to two hours when the Bessa Simons band visited Ashesi as part of the Arts and Science week. Staff, faculty and students danced and sang along to the best of old-school and contemporary highlife music till the Berekuso rains came down.

Rebecca Awuah, Head of the Arts and Sciences Department opened the concert, encouraging the community to “forget about your assignments, your quizzes, your papers to grade, your to-do list and enjoy the ambience, and the best music Ghana has to offer.“

The band was led by renowned highlife musician, Bessa Simons, who has gained both local and international acclaim for his rich music over the years.  Over his career he has played on tour in Europe and Africa, alongside a host of celebrated musicians including trumpeter Hugh Masekela and saxophonist, Manu Dibango. He also enjoyed a long stint with celebrated African band, Osibisa. Locally, he has worked with some of the most notable artistes in the highlife industry including Paulina Oduro, Pat Thomas and Paapa Yankson.

“Not only has Bessa Simons mastered a lot of musical genres, but also he is a great entertainer who has had an incredible international experience,” said Dr. Oduro Frimpong, lecturer in the Arts and Sciences Department. “Thus he is able to bring to bear, some of the old highlife music as well as some the new ones.”

The band had the crowd on their feet, dancing through the night while entertaining them with both classic and contemporary popular highlife hits including Belembe, Awow Yi and We Are Going. At its climax, the concert ended promptly, as the Berekuso rains came down, also drawing the curtains on the Arts and Science week. “The concert is an extension of what we do in the classroom, but to present it in a non-academic way,” said Dr. Oduro Frimpong. “It’s also just to bring the community together, in the midst of a hectic semester just to relax and debrief.”

The Corporate Social Corps (CSC) team from IBM in partnership with the Peace Corps, and local entities led a workshop under the Let Girls Learn initiative. The local partners included Techaid, Ministry of Gender and Ashesi University.

According to Let Girls Learn, 62 million girls around the world are not in school, and the chance to get into school becomes harder as they get older. Started by Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, the initiative is to help expand access to education for girls and remove barriers that make it impossible for them to attend school. This workshop at Ashesi marked the first collaboration between IBM and Peace Corps in their partnership in support of Let girls Learn.

In all, twenty-four girls from various junior and senior high schools attended the workshop alongside students from Ashesi who acted as co-facilitators. To kick-start the day, Angelina Kyeremanteng-Jimoh, Country Manager, IBM, shared her growth and journey to becoming a top executives at IBM, encouraging the girls to be confident as women and to work hard at school.

“We are here to celebrate women, to celebrate the young girls and to empower them to be bigger than they ever thought they can be,” she said. “Being a woman is not an impediment. If you take advantage of being a woman, you will excel. We should encourage our young women of today that they can aspire to be what they want to be.”

The workshop was carried out through a series of presentations interspersed with speed mentoring sessions with IBM executives and Peace Corps volunteers, for the girls and Ashesi students in attendance. These exercises were aimed at exposing the girls to a variety of career options and paths, and also provide them with leadership towards their careers.

“This is in celebration of young girls to aspire them to be bigger than they want to be,” said Gina Tesla, Director of Corporate Citizenship Initiative at IBM. “What we ultimately want to achieve with the girls is to raise more value; and also see how that can be extended and sustained after we leave.”

The workshop also provided an opportunity for networking and interaction between the IBM executives and Ashesi staff and faculty. For students at Ashesi, they were able to gain first hand exposure into the experiences at a leading technology firm through their engagement with the top IBM executives.

“We're moving into an era where through research, big data analytics and more, we gain insights to life around us,” said Business Administration Lecturer at Dr. Esi Ansah, who facilitated the workshop. “It was important to plug into that world through this program and the close exchanges with the IBM execs. Also to give students the exposure to career models/ professionals in the business and technology circles.”

As part of the Student Council Week celebration, the Photography Club and the Fashion and Design Club put together a fashion show to showcase student talent and creativity. Themed 'Monochrome' this year, the annual catwalk event in its second year running brought together designers from Ashesi, Radford University and Valley View University.

Aside being an avenue for up and coming designers to display their works, the fashion show was an opportunity to appreciate the different kinds of ways people choose to present themselves. “Fashion isn't always about the expensive clothes, jewellery and all that seems to go with looking good,” said Jane Amerley Annan ’17, President of the Fashion and Design. “Looking good makes me happy and confident and that's why I went into [fashion] - I just love it. Fashion gives each and everyone an identity. That is the beauty I see in it. We all define who we are through fashion and that makes it so effortless. Like monochrome, our theme inspired by our runway, it is either one or the other. This shows the simplicity; being comfortable with your choices because that is what you own and that is what appeals to you.”

Ashesi’s Norton Motulsky Hall was packed with students, guests and fashion enthusiasts who cheered as models sashayed along the black and white-checkerboard runway in clothing put together by the young designers. The show was interspersed with musical and spoken word performances from students of Ashesi.

Monochrome featured several design lines from a talented crop of designers looking to push the frontiers of the fashion world; from sunglasses with bamboo frames to traditional smocks. "One thing I realized in the local fashion industry is that when it comes to traditional wear, people focus more on the southern Kente than on the northern one,” said Anna Naami ’16. “Being from Tamale, I was exposed to a wide variety of designs of the [Kente] cloth. The people there wear it regularly, but don't take it a step further to make designs. Eventually, I hope to hire a fashion designer or a tailor to work on some designs.”

Clothing and designs featured included the kimono line from Upendo Couture by Jane Amerley Annan ’17, traditional smocks by Anna Naami ’16 , M&D Crochic by Nana Ama and Ama from Valley View University, Originblaq, Hot Du Froid by Dorcas Kpogoh from Radford University College and bamboo framed sunglasses by the Kingzmen.

March, 22, 2016 - Franklin Cudjoe, President and CEO of leading African think tank, IMANI Centre for Policy and Education visited Ashesi to speak with students of the Leadership 3 class. His talk was on the theme Effective Leadership towards the making of A Good Society, drawing from Ghana's 2015 State of the Nation's Address.

Touching on sectors of the economy, he highlighted the gaps in Ghana’s leadership, and encouraged a culture of holding our leaders responsible for what they say. “We need young people to read widely and try to think and write some of these things from your own perspectives," he said. "Also start asking some of these critical questions and do a deep analysis."

Mr. Cudjoe further touched on the need for a leadership that is empathetic and responsible to the citizenry, emphasizing the need for depth in our national policies. “When one of your own decides to suppress you, then there’s a challenge," he said. “Human dignity is at the center of every development. If that element of human dignity is lost, especially if you lose it to your own kind, it is the worst form of ostracization."

Following the talk, Mr. Cudjoe addressed questions from the students while emphasizing the importance of leaving a legacy as leaders. In conclusion he emphasized the need for the country’s policies to be focused on doing things that matter. “There are very few things in life that you can live for, and you want to leave a legacy,” he said. “ You do just one thing, and people remember you for years. What I think we should do is to focus on the things that matter; water, electricity, roads and health and education. However, good education and provision of water, for me, are key.”

Mr. Franklin Cudjoe is the Founding President and CEO for IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Ghana’s leading  and one of Africa's leading think tank group. He currently sits on the Danish International Development Agency’s Board for the private sector. In 2015, he was chosen by the Australian Government for their Special Visitor’s Programme, and selected by the IMF for its 2015 Civil Society Fellows program. He was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010, a fellow of the Africa Leadership Network in 2012, and the only named Think Tank Leader in “Top 50 Africans” List of the respected Africa Report Magazine in 2012.

March 19, 2016 - In partnership with the GhanaThink Foundation, Ashesi hosted a Barcamp Ghana event under the theme “Design thinking as the hope for Africa's growth and development.” The workshop  saw a cross-section of professionals and students participating in sessions aimed at employing design thinking principles to solve problems in our local context. 

Barcamp Ghana is run by the GhanaThink Foundation, an NGO based both in Ghana and the USA. BarCamps are events which bring together young leaders in various fields to mentor and network with students. Barcamp Ghana events are organized to forge networking, discussion, partnerships and change. The goal is to help Ghanaians learn about the issues that affect them, generate ideas for development, network and partner with others who have similar interests and improve or start businesses and projects.

This is the second year running that Ashesi has hosted a BarCamp.  The focus this year was on Engineering and Design in Africa. “Barcamp Ashesi assembled so many important people in the design space,” said Ato Ulzen Appiah, Director of the GhanaThink Foundation. “It helped attendees understand the importance of design and design thinking in architecture, construction, agriculture, technology and business in general.”

The workshop involved a series of breakout, practical and open sessions. Through these, participants were able to gain an appreciation for setbacks within the agricultural, power, finance and leadership sectors while employing design thinking in trying to come up with solutions for problems inherent within the sectors. Participants also had the opportunity to create and visualize their solutions using 3D printers, building of circuits and also computer programming.

“It was a very productive day, given that the grand ideas that were discussed during the speed mentoring sessions were balanced nicely with practical sessions that showcased the “doing” part of Design Thinking and Engineering,” said Dela Kumahor of Cobalt Partners. “I would imagine that participants walked away with that little bit more confidence and a better sense of how to make things happen in the world around them.”

In the end participants were able to gain a breadth of knowledge in new and innovative ways of addressing long-standing problems within our communities, while fostering strong networks. “I strongly believe Barcamp Ashesi would impact many of the attendees who kept to their circles by encouraging them to network and share more,” said Ato Ulzen Appiah.

March 29 - Students, faculty and staff who make up Ashesi’s budding entrepreneurial ecosystem came together to mark the launch of the Ashesi Venture Accelerator (AVA). In attendance as well were private business owners and entrepreneurs from various industries in Accra.

The AVA is a student-led accelerator set up to support student-run businesses by providing them with the resources and funding that they will require in their early stages, in order to grow into fully-fledged companies. Ventures accepted into the incubator can be at any level of maturity, from simple ideas to existing businesses.

 “College is one of the best places to start a business because of the abundance of resources that we have at our disposal,” said Desmond Darlington ‘16, CEO of AVA. “So there needs to be an environment to support student startups and ventures, and even more so, an organization to stimulate entrepreneurship on campus and that’s what the AVA is set out for.”

The accelerator currently supports twelve ventures; providing assistance in grant proposals, crafting of pitches, dedicated coaching from students and faculty, business planning and development, mentorship from business leaders and a number of other essential activities to help them not only build their ideas or products into businesses, but also scale to meet market demands.

“In Ghana, and Africa at large, we are moving from a point of only complaining about our problems to actually being proactive about solving them, especially with an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Benedicta Emefa Gokah '16 Lead Coach at the accelerator. “So with AVA, we are trying to create an enabling environment so that people who have ideas will know what steps to take towards turning them into businesses.”

The launch provided an opportunity for a number of ventures in the accelerator to pitch their products and ideas to the guests. It also served as a platform for networking and exchange of ideas. “The nurturing process for the entrepreneurial mindset needs to go beyond the boundaries of even the most experiential classroom to a real startup situation where there are real rewards and consequences to everyday decisions,” said Dr. Gordon Adomdza of the Business Administration Department. “This is why we are excited about the Ashesi Venture Accelerator because it becomes a community of entrepreneurial types from all over Ashesi who are nurturing their mindset and honing their skill-set for success in the market.”

“Our goal is to see Ashesi spearhead the next generation of Africa’s biggest entrepreneurs,” said Desmond Darlington ’16. “In the next 6-8 years, we want see billion dollar companies come from Ashesi and this is possible because we are digging our own valley here."

For two weeks, Anna Addei was aboard the MV World Odyssey, as Ghana’s Interport Student for the Semester at Sea program. Anna is the sixth Ashesi student to participate in programe since 2009.

Aboard the ship, Anna served as a shipboard ambassador for Ghana, sharing Ghanaian culture and values with other Semester at Sea students from across the globe. In the images and story below, she shares her experience aboard the ship

My once in a life time experience as Interport student for the Spring 2016 Semester at Sea voyage started long before I even got aboard the MV World Odyssey, the amazing German-built cruise ship which served as my home for a week and a half. On my arrival at the airport in Cape Town, South Africa, I was welcomed by a travel agent who seemed to know everything there was to know about the town. At this point, I had no doubts that I was going to have a much greater time than I had expected.

After a tour of the MV World Odyssey and a great talk over lunch with one of the students, I went shopping on Cape Town’s famous Green Street with newly made friends. The next day saw me site-seeing on a tour bus, seeing a movie with another batch of new friends and witnessing the thrashing of the Australian National Rugby team by South Africa’s team right from the stands of the stadium in an International Rugby game. To top this all, before the ship sailed the following day, I got to enjoy a truly South African lunch in the popular township, Langa, and also had the opportunity to visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his jail sentence. The seals and penguins on the island made the trip even more exciting. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would find myself having such a treat in South Africa.

The experience on the ship was just as remarkable an experience as in Cape Town. From my cozy cabin to the exciting buffet of food set before me everyday, I felt out of this world. Yet, I considered my interactions with the students and faculty aboard the ship even more precious. With each day, I made a dozen new friends and was intrigued by the conversations we engaged in as we learnt from each other on a vast range of topics. The networking opportunities were also endless; from connecting with business leaders from world leading corporations to students from all over the world, I couldn't ask for more. 

The “school week” started and so did work for me. I had the opportunity to sit in on up to six classes each day and give insights on topics being discussed from a Ghanaian or African perspective. I must say that I haven’t been more glad about taking my Africana courses seriously; most of the insights I shared, were influenced by lessons learned from these courses. I also realized the importance of  sharpening of my communication skills through various extra-curricular activities and career fair competitions we have at Ashesi, as I was commended by many if not all the lecturers who invited me to their classes. My presentation on Ghana which was addressed to all seven hundred members of the shipboard community put the icing on the cake of my ambassadorial duties on the ship.

When classes were not in session, the club activities offered a wide range of engaging options to choose from. I took the opportunity to put my dancing shoes on, learning the ramba and samba with the ballroom dance club. I also took time to join the Christian fellowship on board in their sessions including the watching of Passion of Christ in the ship's classroom cinema, the Kino. When there were either no club activities or class, further networking and movie nights served as perfect alternatives.

Arriving in Ghana on Easter Sunday, time with my new friends didn’t end. With twelve others in my company, we joined a church in Takoradi for their Easter service. I was surprised at how difficult I found it to part with the ship and shipboard community when we docked in Tema two days later. The possibility of getting attached never crossed my mind but it was time to leave.

If I had the chance, I will do this again and again and again. Semester at Sea was such a worthwhile experience and has conveniently placed many goodies in my backpack of experience and personal growth, that have the potential to put my life on a trajectory that I never imagined possible.

April 1, 2016 – To close out the International Week celebration, the International Students Association (ISA) brought the community together for a night of cultural performances from across Africa. Under the theme “Different cultures, one people,” the week-long celebration sought to highlight the diversity and need for oneness within our community.

“The theme resonates with the need to celebrate diversity, respect differences, and also bring people’s minds to the fact that, in the midst of all those differences we are one people with a common goal; whether it is at Ashesi, or across the globe,” said Rosemary Kotei, Coordinator of the Office of Development and International Programmes. “It is also important to remind people that they are working for the betterment of humanity as one people, and let that fact drive our interactions.”

The week-long celebration featured a broad variety of activities aimed at bringing to the fore both the benefits and challenges inherent within building a diverse community. From a panel discussion on how entertainment promotes diversity, to food-tasting of dishes from across Africa, members of the community had an appreciation for the differences and similarities within our community. Activities such as the Human Library also turned the community into a hotbed to discuss some of the issues we ordinarily shy away from. 

“When I joined the ISA, I realized the work the association was putting in to create a unified student body regardless of where we come from,” said Aisha Abba Mohammed ’17. “However, there were some challenges, seeing how people have different cultures. Yet, even though we think differently and do things differently, if we actually took the time to learn about each other, we would actually understand the differences and similarities that we all share. If we start doing this now, we are going to build a global connection in Africa that will make a difference in future.”

As part of the celebration, senior fellows from the Melton Foundation visited Ashesi to lead a talk on global citizenship, centering on how we can foster togetherness and purpose within the community and beyond. “We need to reach out, open up and think beyond our own interests,” said Lars Dietzel, Senior Fellow and Global Network Manager at the Melton Foundation. “We need to embrace that aspect of responsibility that is understanding, appreciating and embracing your role in society, to not only make an individual difference but to think about the bigger picture and act in role that each of us fits in.”

For the climax, members of the community were treated to a mix of activities including a fashion show, cultural dance and spoken word performances. “We are doing this to bring everybody together, irrespective of our differences,” said James Mugo ’18, President of the International Students Association. “We hope to unite everybody to speak the same language, not in terms of dialect, but to not to see oneself as Ghanaian, or Kenyan or South African, but to see oneself as a global citizen.”

The week's activities were sponsored by Rwandair, Office of Students and Community Affairs and the Ashesi Students Council.

April 4, 2016 – Olubanke King Akerele, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liberia, joined Ashesi’s Leadership 3 class to speak on 'A Good Society through Effective and Efficient Leadership'. 

Following years of conflict, Liberia has taken steps towards national rebuilding, not only in the development of infrastructure, but also in the area of a new kind of leadership. According to Ms. Akerele “the way we build new leadership for the continent is to create it.”

As part of her talk, the former minister of state touched on her experiences while working for the United Nations Development Program and how it impacted her drive for leadership training and development. She stressed the importance of building experience in the training of leaders, before they take up leadership roles.“You don’t just graduate and become a leader,” she said. “You have to experience the reality of issues beforehand, and this is extremely important leadership development.”

On post-conflict leadership, Ms. Akerele shared her experiences in addressing a food shortage crisis following the conflict in Liberia and some of the key decisions she had to implement in her role as minister. She advocated the importance of a practicing leadership in a new way, using institutions as bedrock for training leaders, not only in the classrooms, but also in the real world. "The need for exposure and experience is critical and the way we have new leadership for the continent is through training,” the former minister said. “You have to create the new leadership, you have to change the mindset and you have to help people understand what leadership and governance is about. There also needs to be more mentoring and associating with older people and also more people with the professional background to help them get there.”

She concluded her talk with a demonstration of a board game she created, “Growing Africa’s Leadership”. The game which will be launched in Nigeria later this year is based on the experiences of young African professionals who worked in various government functionaries, as part of Akerele’s leadership development training efforts. The game opens players up to real world scenarios where they are tasked with making decisions that affect national development.

Olubanke King Akerele a Liberian politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from October 2007 until her resignation on 3 November 2010. She served for over 20 years at the United Nations prior to her political appointment. Upon the election of Sirleaf as president in 2005, Akerele was appointed as the Minister of Commerce and Industry. Following a 2007 cabinet shakeup, she replaced veteran diplomat George Wallace as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Akerele studied at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and graduated from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, United States with a B.A. in economics. She earned her first M.A. from Northeastern University in manpower economics, then a second M.A. from Columbia University in economics of education. Akerele also completed her first year at the University of Liberia, Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law. She is the granddaughter of Liberia's 17th president, Charles D. B. King