January 14, 2019
Though an exciting period for most new leaders, holding office in student government can, at times, be quite a tough nut to crack. Noting the need to help students adequately prep for their new roles in leadership, the Office of Student and Community Affairs (OSCA) started a leadership summit in 2018 as part of an onboarding process for new student leaders.
The summit creates an opportunity for newly selected campus leadership to engage with their forerunners as well as university administrators and gain the necessary insight and skills they need to assume their positions in leadership.
Only seven years ago, Derrick Crenstil ’12 was voted in as the President of the Student Council for the 2011/2012 academic year. During his term as president, the university made its pivotal move from renting spaces in Labone to occupying its very own campus space at Berekuso, making him the first-ever ASC president to oversee student affairs on the Berekuso campus.
“Moving to Berekuso at the time was almost like moving to live on an island,” shared Crenstil. “My team and I had it tough because a lot of new issues emerged concerning student life, student housing, and feeding, that we had never faced previously. We had to think outside the box and be really creative in our solutions to reboot student life and activity on the new campus, and keep the student body energized.”
“We started the summit because we realized that we needed to hand over more than a title to the new leaders, and it went extremely well,” shared Abdul Madhi, Dean of Student and Community Affairs. “One of the best things an alum can do is to come back and give back as they are doing now, because whether they like it or not whatever happens here, affects them directly; whether the school is getting better, whether they are recruiting the right faculty, whether there is craziness in the student body, it affects their certificate.”
The 2019 summit brought together alumni who had served in student leadership while they were students at Ashesi, to serve as mentors and resource persons for the student leaders. Key alumni speakers were Derrick Crenstil ’12, Derrick Omari ’14, Michael Quansah ’14, Adukwei Quarcoopome ’17, and Pinamang Gyemfi ’17 who shared their experiences and tips they learned along the way, covering themes of conflict and time management, how to manage finances, teamwork and event planning.
Student leaders additionally engaged in a series of exercises and activities that touched on various aspects of the student leadership experience mentors answered pressing questions they had.
“When I was a Resident Assistant at Ashesi, we had very few examples and prior experiences to learn from. So we had to do a lot of learning on the job. But now, there’s a lot more structure, and I get to share my experiences with the next generation of leaders,” shared Emefa Senoo ’14.
Urging students to make the best of their leadership opportunities, Derrick shared a few last words with the leaders, “the role you are beginning is a hard one, but at the end of the day, it is one that is very rewarding. You get to have an experience that shapes your life, try out things as a leader and explore your potential as a leader. The skills you develop here would most likely be the same ones you would carry on using even after you’re done with Ashesi. So do not to limit your output to what you have seen in the past but rather explore what has not been done before.”
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