The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I always say: I am from Elmina , I grew up in Kumasi , I live in Accra , I care a lot about Ghana and I love Africa . But for a decade, I was living in the USA. Even then, I always say, I had one foot in Ghana all throughout. What took me there? What brought me back? What grazing in colder pastures? Where is your American accent? Let’s dig in, thanks to a conversation I had with Frank Bentum , on Ghanaian students choosing Western higher education and how this impacts human capital development in Ghana, with findings informing policy recommendations.  Motivations for Studying Abroad (Push Factors) My decision to study at MIT was primarily influenced by a role model , Arthur Musah. Arthur finished Presec in 1998, just before I entered the green grounds of Presec-Legon . He had emerged as the second best (WA)SSCE candidate in this year and he was being duly celebrated. I learnt that he had also played a major part of the Presec Drama Club. I looked up to him. In 2000, when I was...

I have been following basketball more closely since I went to the USA in 2001 to continue my journey to MIT from Presec . During my 10 years in the US, I fell in love with the game of basketball. #ILoveThisGame . This love grew partly because I was unable to watch much football as a big sports fan. If you think I am talking about the NFL, you must be new here . Football, aka soccer, okay, I am about to talk about American sports so I would defer for now . I have blogged about  basketball  a lot. This time, let me tell you about NCAA basketball , even though March Madness is a couple of months past. I support the following colleges in the annual tournaments: Stanford, Syracuse, North Carolina (UNC) and UConn . From September 2001, I spent almost 12 months in Syracuse , New York with my dad who was working on his Post Doc at the time. I worked at a local grocery chain to get money for school, helped my dad with some side hustles and he taught me how to cook . He also was the...

I was approached by Derrick Obeng of Campus Radio Ghana to join their Success Drive Whatsapp platform to be featured, share, answer questions, etc. This happened on January 11, 2019. I loved the conversation I had with the  NUGS Volta Region Bloc Women's Platform  to share and discuss volunteeringh , following after Barcamp Ho  coordinator  Courage Christson Tetteh  had done something similar with them earlier.  Pamela Klutse  made that one happen and I blogged about it as well. 2 awesome people who all were part of the  Barcamp Ho 2018   organizing team. We discussed many things on the Success Drive show , it was like a hot seat - #KonnectKouch ( watch this space ). Edith Bannerman , the host, asked me: " So studying at  MIT  and Stanford ? How did that go? "  I picked up  #MightyAfrican  from my tertiary education in the US.  Let's dig into that. I hope you find some oil you can use.  Studying at...