April 12, 2017
In July 2016, 33 young men and women completed Teach for Ghana’s training workshop held at Ashesi. The six-week workshop focused on equipping the trainees, who formed the inaugural cohort of Teach for Ghana fellows, with transferable leadership skills to effect change in teaching practice, school culture, and educational outcomes in underserved communities in Ghana.
Not only did the workshop mark an end of the training period for the fellows, but it also reflected a growing relationship between Ashesi and Teach for Ghana. Over the past two years, Ashesi has provided nearly $40,000 USD in assistance to support Teach for Ghana’s mission in Ghana.
“Ashesi’s support has been remarkable in helping establish our program,” said Daniel Dotse, CEO for Teach for Ghana. “At the workshop, access to professors, resources, and facilities were a great opportunity for our fellows in enriching their experience. Besides benefiting from Ashesi’s campus as our home base, the access to the schools in the Berekuso community, helped our fellows practice some of the things we were teaching at the workshop.”
Nearly a year later, Teach for Ghana fellows are spread across 12 junior high schools, in 3 districts in the Volta Region, helping to transform the communities.
“There’s been a tremendous impact; not just in the students, but in the schools and communities they’re working,” said Daniel. “For some of the parents who had previously been disinterested in the children’s education, seeing a Teach for Ghana fellow in their homes, sharing a vision of education they have for their children changes the narrative.”
One of the fellows, Naa Korkoi Larmie ’16 also an Ashesi alumna, right after graduation decided to skip mainstream employment opportunities for the Teach for Ghana fellowship. “Seeing children hawking on the streets, the state of street children in Ghana and several vices they are exposed to breaks my heart,” explained Naa. “There is so much untapped potential out there, simply because they didn’t have the choice, or weren’t informed or exposed to choices left them out there. I didn’t want to look away or just join in the complaining about their plight. Someone needs to play an active part in solving this problem.”
Through Teach for Ghana’s fellowship, Naa and the other fellows get the opportunity to reach out children in underserved communities in Ghana. In the second year of their fellowship, aside from their roles as teachers in the classrooms, the fellows work also focus on addressing challenges within their communities.
Through internships and employment opportunities at Teach for Ghana, students and alumni at Ashesi help strengthen the partnership between the institutions. “Having alumni from Ashesi working as part of the fellowships and within our organizations, not only adds to help enrich our diversity and magnify our impact,” said Daniel. “The ability to spread the Ashesi education through fellows like Naa Korkoi is immensely impactful to our students in the classrooms. It also helps enrich the diversity of conversations and experiences among the rest of our fellows.”
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