Young students from Adeiso Presbyterian Senior High School (SHS), a rural public school in the West Akim district, visited Ashesi’s Berekuso campus on Wednesday,16 November 2011 to interact with the Ashesi community. The 57 students are members of the Worldreader.org’s iREAD pilot project, which has been supported by Ashesi’s Readworm club. The iREAD project gives students access to free e-readers to assess the effects of e-readers on student reading habits (read more about this project here). The students visited Ashesi to learn more about the university, preparing for college and career building. The visit, organized by the Readworm club, was under the theme “Reaching for Excellence”.
Mr. Matthew Taggart, Associate Development Director at Ashesi, met and welcomed the students to the university and gave them a brief introduction to Ashesi’s campus. The two presentations that followed afterward - “the power of youth to effect change” (by Readworm club patron, Mr. Kobina Graham) and “the Ashesi student experience” (by Sidney Koranteng ’13) - sought to allow the Adeiso students to understand Ashesi’s teaching and learning philosophy. The Adeiso students had the opportunity to sit in their first ever university lecture, when they joined Ashesi students in an Expository Writing class. “It was refreshing to see those enthusiastic young faces […] and I believe their interaction with our students was very positive,” said Ms. Georgina Ohene, the lecturer for the class. “When they visited my class, I assigned them roles to write on the board, answer questions and be an integral part of our session. Somehow, I think they left with a distinct feeling that Ashesi is an all-embracing institution where learning and personal development are encouraged and nurtured.”
Before the day’s activities came to an end for the high school students, an essay competition was launched on the topic: Write on your experience at Ashesi and relate it to how Ghanaian youth have the power to change Ghana today. The winning essay, written by Richard Nartey, was a critically written reflection paper that showed an immense understanding of the values of Ashesi. Richard was highly appreciative of the welcome he and his colleagues had received at Ashesi, and explained that he had realized that “Ashesi students are very interactive and eager to help you solve your problems. I really want to be here someday, to experience the Ashesi way and learn how to think positively, share ideas, and adopt a can-do spirit. I say a big thank you to Ashesi!”