November 11, 2016
This month, Patrick Awuah traveled to Seattle, Washington to introduce new organizations and individuals to Ashesi’s work, and update supporters on Ashesi’s next steps, including our drive to 1,200 students by 2020.
The trip included interviews with GeekWire, Humanosphere and King 5, and community events for Ashesi supporters and newcomers alike.
At these events, Patrick shared that, by growing to 1,000 students, Ashesi will be able to produce more graduates, who will then create new businesses and jobs across Africa. With a rapidly growing population, the need for job creation in Africa has never been more important.
“When I look at Africa today, there’s about 1.1 billion people and the World Bank estimates that by 2050, there will be 2.5 billion people,” said Patrick. “We’re going to have to create a lot of jobs, we’re going to have to grow economies across the continent…And this demographic change will be a dividend for Africa if we have good governance and we have strong educational systems. If we have an environment where the private sector can flourish and people are empowered to create new businesses and to create jobs for everybody.” Learn more about our drive to 1,000 students here.
And to everyone who took the time to engage with Ashesi on this trip–thank you!
GeekWire Interview: How Patrick Awuah cracked the code for gender diversity in engineering
In an interview with Seattle-based GeekWire, Patrick shared his successful formula for attaining gender balance in higher education, and in particular, engineering.
33% of Ashesi’s sophomore engineering class are women, as is 40% of the freshman class – an astonishing accomplishment.
And you can listen to the full interview here.
Humanosphere Interview: Making Ghana the epicenter for an African revolution in education
Patrick also spoke with Humanosphere, a non-profit news organization devoted to making news about the global fight against poverty and inequality. In the interview, Patrick details what inspired him to envision and create Ashesi University.
Having graduated from Swarthmore College in the US, Patrick noticed that other Africans returning home after receiving a liberal arts & sciences education abroad had better problem-solving skills and creativity. “And I said to myself, this needs to happen in Africa. Someone needs to introduce the liberal arts & sciences to Africa…and eventually somehow settled on the idea that I was going to make a go of it,” shares Patrick.
Listen to the podcast here. Conversation begins at 11:47.
King5 News: Ex-Microsoft program manager founds university in Ghana
In this video interview, Patrick reflects on Ashesi’s founding and impact to date. “It is amazing to change somebody’s life and to be part of that,” says Patrick. “I have students and alumni who I know would be in a very different place had they not come to Ashesi University.”
Seattle Celebrations
A community-wide event hosted by Patrick and Ashesi Foundation saw a record 55+ attendees, who gathered to hear Patrick’s vision for Ashesi’s future.
The week culminated in a small gathering for Ashesi Foundation Trustees and supporters (pictures below), where Patrick detailed progress on current funding priorities, including constructing new student housing, a Research & Learning Lab and a Student Center and providing scholarships to increase access to an Ashesi education.
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