April 20, 2017
Sophomore Ifashabayo Sylvain Dejoie ’19 has been selected as the 2017/2018 Dalai Lama Fellow at Ashesi. As part of his nomination, Dejoie will receive year-long dedicated coaching and mentorship in expanding his work with Anidaso, a social enterprise he is part of.
Started by two college students from Arizona State University, Anidaso gives Ghanaian entrepreneurs access to the Arizona market in the US and returns profits to partnering Ashesi students to implement ideas they believe will make a difference in their community.
For his part, Dejoie is spearheading the enterprise’s work in Ghana, from sourcing hand-crafted goods from local entrepreneurs to channeling the profits to help implement impactful change in local communities. Currently, his work focuses on providing mentorship and access to tutorials to junior high schoolers from underserved communities.
“For me, access to quality education would not be possible without help from the Mastercard Foundation,” said Dejoie, who is also a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at Ashesi. “So through Anidaso, we are able to provide access to quality mentorship and tutorials to some junior high school students in Ghana who otherwise would not have an opportunity to progress through school.”
With personal authorization from His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama Fellows Program seeks to broaden and deepen leaders’ perspectives in addressing problems faced by humanity today and for generations to come, calling on leaders to think and behave differently, and to seek realistic, innovative and expansive ways to address global challenges.
Since 2012, Ashesi has been part of an exclusive list of twelve international campuses that participate in the Dalai Lama Fellows program – along with other schools such as Stanford, Oberlin and Princeton. The Dalai Lama Fellows program includes three interconnected components: a meticulous selection process to identify promising Fellows at select universities; ongoing, personalized support from program officers and outstanding experts in their fields to equip Fellows with new understandings and capabilities; and lifelong participation by all Fellows in a Global Learning Community that will strengthen each individual’s capacity to lead, while fostering a sense of collective global responsibility, service and action.
As part of his fellowship, Dejoie will attend the Ethical Leadership Assembly in San Francisco this June to receive coaching and mentorship, and network with fellows from around the world.
“Through Dalai Lama Fellows program, I believe I will be exposed to leadership training that will help make this project more impactful,” he added. “I believe leadership I’m getting here in Ashesi, combined with the training and focused mentorship I will get through the Dalai Lama foundation, will help me make a difference.”
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