A summary of water quality tests conducted from January through to December of 2017.
Tullow Oil launches scholarship partnership with Ashesi
In a brief ceremony at Ashesi, Tullow Oil officially launched its partnership with Ashesi to provide scholarships to under-resourced students to study Engineering. The scheme, which will provide approximately $500,000 in scholarship cover, is part of a broader effort from Tullow to build capacity in areas where the company’s host countries experience significant skills gaps. Through the scheme, Tullow hopes to contribute to building long term institutional capacity in its host countries, while giving students a chance to receive high quality education.
“Over the years, Tullow has been a key partner in terms of helping us train students, by providing internships and playing an active role in supporting career centred initiatives at Ashesi,” said Ebenezer Buckman, Director of External Relations at Ashesi. “This new partnership is a key step towards strengthening the relationship we already have.”
“At Tullow, we believe that education is the bedrock of our society, a requisite for Ghana’s development,” said Lina Sowah, Senior Geologist at Tullow. “Since 2010, Tullow has supported education and scholarship as part of our tenet of shared prosperity to grow and build the capacity of Ghanaian students in various fields of study. In 2017, we decided to focus more on the development of Science, Technology and Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in our institutions of study, here in Ghana. This directed focus provides access and opportunity for us to support the next generation of students for a technology-driven society and world, which we find ourselves in, particularly for the jobs here in Ghana, and also in oil and gas industry, which is our prime business.”
Five students, Nana Oye Djan ’19, Victor Hazel ’19, Tubare Kolah ’21, Allnice Hannah Mensah ’21 and Michael Osei ’21, have been selected as the first group of beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme.
About Tullow
Tullow Oil is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company. The Group has interests in 90 exploration and production licences across 16 countries which are managed as three Business Delivery Teams: West Africa, East Africa and New Ventures.
Tullow has a balanced portfolio of exploration, development and production assets which are split into three Business Delivery Teams: West Africa, East Africa and New Ventures.
Caught Being Good: celebrating everyday actions that impact the community
Manuela Ewoenam Doh ’21 takes tidiness in the lecture halls very personally.
At Ashesi eating in lecture halls is prohibited. However, this is one of those rules that most people simply forget about, or in some cases, may simply ignore. Not Manuela, though – she usually goes out of her way to remind her classmates to not eat in the lecture halls, and in some cases, picks up after people’s mess.
So when her classmate, Tamisha Sebefie ’21, run into Manuela reprimanding a group of students for eating in class, she considered it laudable, and promptly nominated her as a candidate for Caught Being Good.
“It’s a rule that we so easily forget,” Tamisha said. “I thought it was a bit weird and admirable that Manuela took it so seriously.”
Tamisha (right) nominated Manuela for her courage in encouraging their classmates to keep the lecture halls tidy
In November 2017, the Office of Student and Community Affairs launched Caught Being Good, an initiative to celebrate everyday actions that make a positive impact in our community. With a goal to encourage each other to do good, everyday and live out the values for which Ashesi stands for, the initiative, fosters a sense of community, responsibility and ownership.
“It’s really the simple acts done by people in a community that raises the image of that setting,” said Frances Awua-Kyeremanten, Associate Director of Student Affairs. “Our community’s growth, by and large, is built on the contributions of its members, in sometimes very small and almost unnoticeable ways, and we’d like to acknowledge and encourage them to keep being that asset. Through Caught Being Good, we hope to celebrate everyday people for everyday actions, and start a chain-reaction of people always seeking to do good.”
When Dejoie Ifashabayo went to pick up a book from a friend’s room, he noticed one of the occupants, had suddenly fallen seriously ill. He managed to mobilize a few others, and helped him to the Health Centre.
Every month, members of the community nominate students they observe doing random acts of good. Following this, a committee of students, staff and faculty vets the nominations and selects up to five students who are publicly acknowledged for their actions.
For Melanie Koranteng who went to the aid of a librarian who was overwhelmed by a barrage of students trying to process their requests at the library, helping others should be second-nature. “Good deeds done out of love will help us will encourage others to do same,” she said. “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works.”
Melanie Kwarteng came to the aid of one university librarian who was overwhelmed by a barrage of students waiting for their requests to be processed
Other students who were Caught Being Good in January 2018
Nana Kwame joined Melanie Kwarteng to relieve the librarian of his heavy load while serving students
Matthew went around campus, picking up pieces of litter, from the lecture halls, canteen and the hostels.
Ashesi’s Career Services office kick-starts Student-mentorship program
February 10, 2018, Oak Plaza Hotel – Ashesi’s Career Services office held a breakfast meeting to kick-start its mentorship program for second and third-year students at Ashesi.
The goal of the initiative is to help students build guided professional experience through a year-long paired mentorship program. Students who sign up for the program are connected to volunteer mentors selected from industry, corporate Ghana and from Ashesi’s alumni community.
“Navigating through school; classes, project work and building a career can be overwhelming, particularly when not guided,” said Akua Ampah, Career Services Coordinator. “Our goal is that the mentorship program will help ease this journey for the students. By pairing them up with people who have walked the paths they’re hoping to walk, we believe they will get a clearer perspective to add to what they learn in the classroom. For the mentors too, we are confident they will learn a lot as they engage with the students.”
The breakfast meeting, besides serving as the launch for the program, was an opportunity for mentors to meet one-on-one with their mentees for the first time. Overall, the 60 mentor-mentee pairs will be expected to work together over the year.
“I’m quite excited about the opportunity to mentor a student from Ashesi, particularly because I am alumnus, and have gone through similar challenges of being a student there,” said Abdul-Latif Issahaku ‘05, Data and Devices Manager, MTN Ghana. “Getting to meet my mentee and having a sense of her expectations and challenges, and chatting through how I can be helpful makes me excited. Though I graduated some 12 years ago, the challenges and experiences students face are still very similar, so having someone who has already taken this journey, with added experience can be a very useful asset.”
While the program will be formally curated by the Career Services office for a year, the hope is that both mentor and mentee can benefit from a long-lasting relationship that will provide growth opportunities for both parties.
“I signed up for the mentorship program because I wanted to connect with an experienced and more informed person who will guide me, provide career counseling and help in my personal development,” said Angela Antwi-Boateng. I happen to also be a mentor of some high school students myself, so the main idea is to transfer and direct lessons and guidance I get from my mentor to my mentees – it’s more like an inlet-outlet cycle for me.”
Finding Love at Ashesi
Whether for better or worse, Ashesi, has helped set the scene for many love stories. From the rented country houses in Labone in the early days, to the lush greenery in Berekuso, countless students have not just graduated from Ashesi, but also have found a life partner here.
This season of love, we’ve invited some of our alumni to take the spotlight, and share stories of how they found love here.
Daniel Botchway ‘13 & Tonilola (Ayronrinde) Botchway ‘14
Thanks to Ashesi’s close-knit community, we met in Toni’s first year. I was in my second year at the time. I got to know her through my friends who were in the same hostel as she was- and we started off as casual friends. Our friendship grew and we got much closer, eventually becoming study partners through the Programming Resource Centre … this is when things got interesting. Read more
Kojo Biney ’10 and Akosua (Agyei-Boahene) Biney ‘10
Ashesi was the melting pot. All the unfolding sequence of events was because Ashesi made room for them to happen. The right timing, the right friends and the right mind-sets. It’s like having made-in-Ghana stamped on your goods; Ghana usually doesn’t lift a hand but she gets the credit. Read more
David Dei Awuku ’13 and Nana Adjoa (Hagan) Dei Awuku ‘13
Four years is a lot of time to be with someone, first of all. With the whole small -school experience and being in the same year group, we managed to spend a lot of time together. From studying together to belonging to the same circle of friends, we grew and matured together. Read more
Emmanuel Antwi Nkansah ’13 and Elysia (Amarteifio) Nkansah ‘13
Outside Ashesi, we had always been encouraged to be entrepreneurial so fast forward 2014, when a classmate, Frank Anamuah-Koufie’13 and I decided to start Cavemen , Elysia was very understanding and supportive. And when she decided to do Aurore Bruce I didn’t think twice about being her pillar. Read more
Ted Okpoti-Paulo ’15 and Abena (Gyekye) Okpoti-Paulo ‘15
As a young couple in Ashesi, we came to the conclusion that time is the most important factor of every relationship. If you spend time with someone, love is built, trust is built and information is communicated easily and faster. Read more
Microsoft partners with Ashesi to hold coding event for women in Africa
February 8, 2018 – Multinational technology giant, Microsoft brought together 45 female students from the University of Ghana and Ashesi for its first ever Codess event in Africa. Hosted by Ashesi, the event brought together female students in Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology from both universities.
Initiated by Microsoft nearly five years ago, Codess is a community for female coders established to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the programming and engineering fields.
“Codess was started because of the need we see in growing female talent from the engineering and technical skills perspective,” said Lerato Erasmus, University Recruiting Account Manager (Sub-Saharan Africa) at Microsoft. “We got a sense from the ladies that there was a lot more than coding that they took from the event. They also gained an understanding of who they are, and how to present themselves from a brand perspective. Having the experience of interacting with industry at university level gives an individual the edge in fitting into any role they apply for when they graduate, and I believe the event gave them that exposure.”
Over the years, multiple Codess events held across the globe have brought hundreds of young women-in-tech together, to network, share experiences, receive mentorship and career guidance, and also explore the opportunities within the tech giant. The forum also aims to inspire the female coders to help them achieve their professional goals.
At the event at Ashesi, the students had the opportunity to engage with Microsoft executives and also participate in an hour-long programming session based on Microsoft’s Azure platform.
“I signed up for the Codess event because I thought it would be a great opportunity to get more insight about the workings at Microsoft,” said Kalysa Owusu, third year Computer Engineering Student at Ashesi. “At the end, I came out with knowledge of Microsoft’s Azure platform as well as an increased sense of motivation for my future as a woman-in-tech. Besides the opportunity to chat with recruiters and actual Microsoft employees, I also learned that it’s always important to try something at least once before making a decision concerning whether or not you like it, and most importantly, to constantly learn new things!”
AJC ruling on alleged academic dishonesty in Leadership Course
On Wednesday, 6th February 2019, the Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) adjudicated on two cases of plagiarism.
The AJC concluded that the students, members of the Class of 2021, were guilty of plagiarism, after finding that a portion of their papers was from another source and referenced improperly. While there has not been any record of informal resolution of the students, the cases were escalated to AJC due to the high percentage of their similarity index (above 20%) from Turnitin.
As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook:
“Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, unauthorized exchange of information or use of material during an examination, unauthorized transfer of information or completed work among students, use of the same paper in more than one course, unauthorized collaboration on assignments, and other unethical behavior. Disciplinary action will be taken against of academic dishonesty” (Section 7.4)
After deliberating, the AJC arrived at the following sanction:
These students will receive a failing grade for the course, August – December 2018.
Advice to the Ashesi Community:
The AJC encourages the community to remember that careless work and a lack of academic integrity will have serious repercussions. The AJC would like to further remind the Ashesi community of the following:
- Students should be responsible and plan to submit assignments/projects ahead of time and not rush to meet a deadline.
- Students should learn to do proper citation/referencing right from the onset of the assignment to avoid sloppy referencing on submission.
- Students should make use of Ashesi resources such as the Writing Centre when their work needs to be reviewed.
- Students, when working on papers, should always make sure the document for submission is consistently saving, and should also save multiple versions at various stages of their work (e.g. Final_Paper_Draft1, Final_Paper_Draft2, Final_Paper_FinalDraft etc).
We trust that this case will serve as a learning experience for our community. Academic honesty is very important at Ashesi and is central to our mission: To train a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, concerns for others and courage it will take to transform a continent.
AJC ruling on alleged academic dishonesty in Computer Programming Course
On Tuesday, 9th July 2019, the Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) ruled on a case of academic misconduct (violation of Examination Code of Conduct and Examination Rules).
The AJC concluded that the students, members of the Class of 2022, were guilty of cheating, exchanging materials and making gestures during an examination thereby, violating the Examination Code of Conduct and Examination Rules. While there hasn’t been any record of informal resolution of the students, the case was escalated to AJC due to the severity of the act and also after the offenders denied any wrongdoing when asked by the invigilators after the paper.
As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook:
Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, unauthorized exchange of information or use of material during an examination, unauthorized transfer of information or completed work among students, use of the same paper in more than one course, unauthorized collaboration on assignments, and other unethical behaviors. Disciplinary action will be taken against the perpetrators of academic dishonesty. – Section 7.4
After deliberating, the AJC arrived at the following sanction:
These students will receive a failing grade (E) for the course, January – May 2019.
Advice to the Ashesi Community:
The AJC encourages the community to remember that lack of academic integrity will have serious repercussions. The AJC would like to further remind the Ashesi community of the following:
- Students should know that regardless of whether they have signed unto the Honour Code or not, they are bound by the Examination Code of Conduct and Examination Rules (pg.39-40 of Students’ Handbook)
- Students should know that the standards/expectations at Ashesi are high no matter the circumstances
- Students are strongly encouraged to report or speak up when they see any member(s) of the Ashesi community violating any rule
We trust that this case will serve as a learning experience for our community. Academic honesty is very important at Ashesi and is central to our mission: To train a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, concerns for others and courage it will take to transform a continent
AJC ruling on Honor Code Violation in Mobile Application Development Course
On Friday, 5th June 2020, the Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) ruled on a case violating the Ashesi Honor Code.
The Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) has found a student guilty of violating the Ashesi Honor Code during an online examination. While the exam was in session the student “mistakenly” posted a question number on the class WhatsApp platform for assistance that she/he meant to send to a friend. The case was escalated to AJC due to an informal resolution already on record of the student.
As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook:
“The purpose of the Exam Code of Conduct is to create an ethical environment for examinations. Failure to abide by the Exam Code of Conduct can result in disciplinary action. During an examination, students:
- Are not allowed to talk to each other, exchange verbal or non-verbal information or physical objects of any kind or engage in any activity that could result in the unfair advantage for one or more students before, during, or after the quiz or exam, while they are in or out of the classroom.” (Section 8.1)
After deliberating, the AJC concluded that the student will receive a failing grade (E) for the course.
Advice to the Ashesi Community:
The AJC encourages the community to consider the importance of understanding and adhering to the code of ethics which serves as a foundation to any respectable society. AJC would like to further remind the Ashesi community of the following:
- The Ashesi code of conduct must be adhered to regardless of the environment or circumstance.
- Students should always avoid cheating and any distractions/ temptations during an examination.
- Students should always refer to the examination code of conduct before the examination period to serve as a reminder.
We do agree that times have changed, and it is tough adjusting to the current circumstance (not to be used as an excuse). Nothing is worth sacrificing one’s ethics for, and our values and especially the Ashesi Honor Code should not be compromised no matter the situation. Remember, as a trusted community we are to uphold our values and be confident to hold others accountable for their actions. We trust that this case will serve as a learning experience for our community. Academic honesty is very important at Ashesi and it is central to our mission: To train a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, concern for others and the courage it will take to transform a continent.
Now is as good a time as any to exhibit ethical courage!
AJC ruling on academic dishonesty in Leadership III Course
The AJC concluded that the two students were guilty of plagiarism, after finding that a portion of each of their papers was from another source. While there has not been any record of informal resolution on file for these students, the cases were escalated to AJC due to the high percentage of their similarity index (above 20%) from Turnitin.
As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook:
Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, unauthorized exchange of information or use of material during an examination, unauthorized transfer of information or completed work among students, use of the same paper in more than one course, unauthorized collaboration on assignments, and other unethical behavior. Disciplinary action will be taken against academic dishonesty” (Section 7.4)
After deliberating, the AJC concluded that the two students will receive a failing grade for the course.
Advice to the Ashesi Community:
The AJC encourages the community to remember that careless work and a lack of academic integrity will have serious repercussions. The AJC would like to further, remind the Ashesi community of the following:
- Students should not blindly refer to past drafts of others or papers submitted by their seniors that could influence the originality of their own ideas and which may result in a decision to tweak someone else’s ideas for submission as one’s own work.
- Students should not give drafts or completed version of their past work to their juniors as it puts them at risk of plagiarizing. In such cases, both parties may be culpable.
- Students should be responsible and plan to submit assignments/projects ahead of time and not rush to meet a deadline.
- Students should make use of Ashesi resources such as the Writing Centre & Faculty Interns when their work needs to be reviewed or for further clarification.
We trust that this case will serve as a learning experience for our community. Academic honesty is very important at Ashesi and is central to our mission: To train a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa; to cultivate within our students the critical thinking skills, concerns for others, and courage it will take to transform a continent.
A Home For All
A Home For All
The kind of experience students have at Ashesi is theirs to choose. Students who thrive at Ashesi are self-driven, and actively engage across different activities and with different people. And the best part of an imperfect, ever-evolving campus, is that students can find lots of different opportunities to shape campus life, begin new projects, and make meaningful contributions to their alma mater.
Ashesi Human Library creates platform for tolerance-building
When Jason Nkansah ’21 was in middle school, he was teased and bullied for his weight. Over time, he developed insecurities about himself – avoiding social circles as much as possible.
Years later, now as a college student, Jason is no more the defenseless middle-school kid who was at the receiving end of jokes and ridicule from his friends. Having overcome his troubling experiences from bullying, dealing with insecurity and feeling unaccepted, he believes his story is one members of the Ashesi community need to hear.
So when he heard about the Human Library, he signed up, alongside 20 other volunteers.
“Before this, I had never told my story, but I felt people needed to know that I went through experiences like this,” he said. “As human beings, we hurt people and do get hurt at times, and perhaps there’s someone who felt or is feeling like I did, so I owe it to them to share how I overcame my struggles and insecurities.”
Organized by the Office of Diversity and International Programs, the focus of the Ashesi Human Library was to encourage open conversations and provide a platform for people to share their stories with other members of the community.
“In the long term we believe the stories shared will help us understand the diverse groups we have on campus, as well as help people connect and empathise with one another,” said Benardine Holdbrook Ghanson, Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
In 2000, two Danish brothers started the Human Library as a movement designed to build a positive framework for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue in a community. Over time, the initiative has spread worldwide, and has been adapted by a number communities to help people share conversations that matter to them.
For its first edition, Ashesi’s Human Library attracted faculty, staff and students alike, many of whom shared very personal parts of their lives.
“The Human Library serves as a spring board for other initiatives aimed at building strong connections within members of our community,” Ghanson said. “ So we hope to leverage the connections made to help build a more tolerant community.”