Between studying Computer Science at Ashesi, senior Anthony Kwawu spends his leisure time philosophizing, writing, teaching, and coding. Meet the renaissance man who does it all.
How has Ashesi impacted your life?
Studying in Ashesi has been a transformative experience and in many ways, is akin to the salons that existed in 18th century Europe – I am sure. My exposure to philosophy, social theory and an amazing literature on leadership has given me the courage to question anything – especially the controversial – and the belief that I can achieve anything with persistence and critical thinking. The incessant debates in the community, on key moral issues, has made me approach life with an open-minded, albeit meticulous, perspective, especially, as regards dealing with other people and even animals. In any sort of debate or conversation, my points seek to unravel the logical and emotional bases of the issues at hand instead of adopting an ad hominem style.
With respect to Technology, classes in Design, Data mining, Algorithms, Robotics and a host of others have given me a first-hand experience of the tremendous power of technology and its potential to redefine society – As a special mention, I have utterly and fatally fallen for Artificial intelligence and its positive repercussions. The cumulative effect of Ashesi’s atmosphere has made me a bit of everything! – Writer, Hacker, Sinologist, Philosopher, Feminist, Economist, movie critic – you name it! In a professional sense, the most profound effect thing Ashesi has imprinted on me, is the value of time and the ability to respect diverse views as well as work with all sorts of people.
What activities or clubs have your participated in?
My first extra-curricular activity was serving as a tutor for an adult literacy program on campus in my freshman year – of course as a philosophy enthusiast, I initiated a salon of my own to discuss philosophy with kindred spirits as well. I moved on to found a chapter of the worldwide Google developer Group (GDG) community with my friends Salifu Mutaru and Sheamus Punch Yebisi; something I am highly proud of. In this capacity, we, with sponsorship from Google and support from the sub-saharan developer community, provided countless software and programming tutorials to students on campus and beyond – we have hosted hackathons, code labs and design sprints as well – all in a bid to inspire young, brilliant minds to solve their communities’ most pressing problems and hack their way to a better future. I was also involved in a community service project to design database systems to streamline activities in impoverished schools: my team won the nationwide Oracle Academy programming competition for this.
In the same vein, I won, with a team, last year’s campus-wide Advanced Level programming competition and was the runner up of the Global Development Analytics Hackathon during which my team designed a web platform to enhance interest in Agriculture amongst young people. Additionally, I have served as a co-founder of Ashesi’s chapter of the Technology Forum and a Microsoft Student Partner; roles that have further put me in the privileged position of increasing technological awareness in my community. Also, my work as a programming tutor for engineering students on campus has only brought me fun and rewarding interactions with students and a chance to make them fall in love with technology – but more importantly to encourage them to harness it to solve meaningful problems. Moreover, I have played for two football teams as well, as a winger and attacker, and I teach at the German Club whenever I have some down time. Apart from enhancing my intellectual life, these activities, more importantly, have made me more human by increasing my empathy with others and strengthened my resolve to make an indelible impact wherever I go.
I see you maintain your own blog. What inspires your thoughts, and to share them with the world?
I keep the blog in hopes of sparking thought-provoking discussions with others. I believe pure expression and communication are central to our evolution as a species and also crucial to eliminating small thinking and oppression. I love philosophy for this very reason and just like I have been inspired by Kant, Hume, Plato, Kierkegaard, Descartes and others, I hope to inspire others in a contemporary context. When we examine our thoughts from multiple perspectives and communicate them with others, they become more refined and lead to even more ambitious ideas that are in the interest of the advancement of the human condition. Also, writing, albeit electronically, is a form of catharsis for me. Indeed “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates.
You can read Anthony’s blog here.
What are your post-graduation plans?
As regards the future, I am thrilled about my forthcoming internship at Goldman Sachs this April, in London. Ashesi’s liberal arts culture has piqued my interest in the financial world and I hope to learn all that I can during my stint at Goldman Sachs and hopefully spend some years contributing to the industry’s technological revolution. Obviously, I want to experience and learn a lot from the Technological Renaissance in the Silicon Valley as well, and ultimately change the technological landscape in Ghana and Africa with all the expertise I would have acquired in the financial Industry and Silicon Valley using Applied Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship as my allies. Patrick Awuah is revolutionizing Africa with Ashesi, I intend to do the same with a medley of Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurship and leadership.
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