Patrick Awuah, leading Ghana to the birthplace of African IT talent
Graduated from a prestigious university in the United States
Microsoft Project Manager
A million-dollar salary and a guaranteed future
Relaxed middle-class life
A life and career that everyone admires.
But there’s someone who has left this guaranteed life behind and headed to Ghana, the poorest country, with only 1/850,000 of U.S. GDP.
Patrick Awuah, founder of Ashesi University.
‘Why can’t Ghana escape from poverty?’
This is a question that has persistently haunted young Patrick Awuah.
Illegal solicitation was rampant everywhere, hospitals were helpless due to a power outage during an urgent operation, and broken paved roads were a natural sight.
Lazy and arrogant police and soldiers
Politicians accustomed to corruption
As a result, people lost hope.
Dreaming of the Renaissance in Africa
But young Patrick Awuah did not give up hope. Although he spent his childhood in poor conditions, he did not give up hope that Africa could one day have a Renaissance. He had big dreams, so he studied harder than anyone else. Patrick left to study at Swarthmore University, a prestigious American university, where he discovers a solution to lift Africa. It was innovation and ethics.
Core Values Learned at American University
Swathmore’s professors taught students in a way that was completely different from Ghana’s. They taught critical thinking and analysis instead of memorization, and ethics and empathy rather than individual success. While learning economics, Patrick Awuah was able to see the poverty and unethical leaders’ decision-making pattern in Ghana. And he realized that knowledge can generate new knowledge in critical thinking, which shines most brilliantly when making society a better place.
What is not in Ghana, but in America
After graduating from college with excellent grades, Patrick gets a job at Microsoft.
Microsoft’s people were more passionate, creative, and talented than anyone else. They knew how to cooperate and were not blind to social issues.
What is not in Ghana, but in America?
It is a person who combines professionalism and ethics!
What else is not in Ghana, but in America?
The US system that further drives the growth of cutting-edge IT companies.
It was a free market, the rule of law, the infrastructure.
‘Those who combine professionalism and ethics’ and ‘A system that works ethically’. Patrick Awuah realized that is the driving force behind the Renaissance in Africa.
Leaving the Bed of Roses
He decided to leave the easy way and return to Ghana to bloom the Renaissance in Africa. An adventure where everything he’s done might disappear. But He had faith.
“People like me who have benefited from good education have a responsibility to solve world problems.”
Patrick Awuah
The responsibility that the people of Ghana, the people of Africa deserve a good education led him to Africa. Patrick left for Ghana with the assets he had accumulated so far, believing that his difficult experiences will help.
Students in Ghana Benefit from Education
30 young men,
It was the beginning of Ashesi University.
The Ministry of Education intervenes in every case,
Lack of budget, negative gaze from the surroundings,
Everything was a difficult adversity.
But Patrick believed in his experience. He passed on to young Africans the critical thinking, ethics and empathy he had learned at Swarthmore University. He created a culture of collaboration, passion and creativity experienced at Microsoft. Ghana’s Ministry of Education began to recognize it, and Microsoft formed an advisory board to support it. As a result, IT professions with both innovativeness and ethics have begun to be produced. All graduates received job offers, started businesses, or went to graduate school.
The Renaissance in Africa!
He had a dream.
And after 20 years of hard work on the bare ground, when talented people were produced, the country began to change.
Instead of fraudulent solicitation, there was free competition in the market, politicians began to learn about the rule of law, and taxes that found their way became Ghana’s strong infrastructure.
And the Renaissance wind of Ashesi University is blowing beyond Ghana toward the African continent.
