A couple weeks ago, we heard about how important GHEI High School Scholarships are to Humjibre. Since then, the scholarship program has been moving fast. Dozens of students have come to pick up scholarship applications, and dozens of of applications have been submitted. Some of them are students from our YEP program, some are the young women in the Girls' Empowerment camp in July, and still many more have never been part of GHEI program but they know GHEI might be able to help. The scholarship committee is meeting to decide on these applications in the next few days; there has been unprecedented interest, and yet less funding then years past...
Before the current GHEI scholarship students head back to classes in October, I had a chance to sit down with a few of them and see how they're doing.
This is Freda Donkor. She is currently in Form 3, roughly the equivalent of senior year in High School.
She attends school at Sefwi Bekwai Senior High School, which is about 10 kilometers outside of her home of Humjibre. She is currently focusing her studies on life sciences, and also agriculture and animal husbandry. She wants to continue studying after High School and study Nursing. “I want to become a nurse to help those who are sick in my community. Hopefully, I can come back and work at the Humjibre clinic.” She is also studying animal husbandry and agriculture because her family are farmers, and “maybe one day, I can help them if I cannot be a nurse.” However, she is also considering becoming a veterinarian.
She stays in a boarding school there, and is still able to come back to Humjibre on the weekends to visit her family. She likes it there, and says she’s quite comfortable. How is the food though? She says, “The food is good…somehow.”
She has one extra-curricular activity, and she takes it very seriously: she plays football (soccer to the North Americans!). She is a midfielder on the school team, and apparently they are very good. There is a league between the other High Schools in the district, and they win quite often. In the last two district wide tournaments, they placed first and then second overall.
She doesn’t seem intimidated by what the future holds for her, and in fact she’s considering maybe putting off college for a bit. She is thinking of coming back to Humjibre for a year to gain some experience. “I want to teach a little here and there at primary schools. And then, God willing, I will go to college for Nursing.”
She attends school at Sefwi Bekwai Senior High School, which is about 10 kilometers outside of her home of Humjibre. She is currently focusing her studies on life sciences, and also agriculture and animal husbandry. She wants to continue studying after High School and study Nursing. “I want to become a nurse to help those who are sick in my community. Hopefully, I can come back and work at the Humjibre clinic.” She is also studying animal husbandry and agriculture because her family are farmers, and “maybe one day, I can help them if I cannot be a nurse.” However, she is also considering becoming a veterinarian.
She stays in a boarding school there, and is still able to come back to Humjibre on the weekends to visit her family. She likes it there, and says she’s quite comfortable. How is the food though? She says, “The food is good…somehow.”
She has one extra-curricular activity, and she takes it very seriously: she plays football (soccer to the North Americans!). She is a midfielder on the school team, and apparently they are very good. There is a league between the other High Schools in the district, and they win quite often. In the last two district wide tournaments, they placed first and then second overall.
She doesn’t seem intimidated by what the future holds for her, and in fact she’s considering maybe putting off college for a bit. She is thinking of coming back to Humjibre for a year to gain some experience. “I want to teach a little here and there at primary schools. And then, God willing, I will go to college for Nursing.”
This is Janet Ofori Amanfo. She is 15 years old and in Form 2 (which is somewhere between sophomore and junior year in USA. The Ghanaian High School system takes three years). She attends Twene Boh Kodah Senior High School in Kumawu, about 150 kilometers outside of her home in Humjibre.
She takes mainly science classes such as physics, biology, chemistry, and elective maths. Her favourite class is, believe it or not, elective physics. Why? “I find the calculations easy and enjoyable.” How?! “I don’t know, I just do!” She also enjoys social studies, but she is quick to point out, “I like physics more.”
Unsurprisingly, she is a member of the science club at her school. They meet on Saturdays and go over particularly difficult problems together, and also form a sort of advocacy group. “If one of our teachers is not performing well, we write letters to the administrators.” They also help students who are having difficulty in the classes, or at least the ones who don’t find physics easy and enjoyable.
Attending boarding school is difficult for her sometimes because she is away from her family, and the distance means she does not see them very often. However, “I like it there, because it means I get to learn things.” According to her the food is okay, but she says this with a slightly sour face, as though she is being polite about it.
She wants to become a doctor, and is already picturing herself as one. “I see doctors and nurses in their uniforms and it makes me so happy. I know one day I will be one.”
Both these girls have been sponsored by the Wanawake Wa Wari Cooperative student group at Cornell University. You can support GHEI Scholarship Program and help a young person in Humjibre attend High School here
She takes mainly science classes such as physics, biology, chemistry, and elective maths. Her favourite class is, believe it or not, elective physics. Why? “I find the calculations easy and enjoyable.” How?! “I don’t know, I just do!” She also enjoys social studies, but she is quick to point out, “I like physics more.”
Unsurprisingly, she is a member of the science club at her school. They meet on Saturdays and go over particularly difficult problems together, and also form a sort of advocacy group. “If one of our teachers is not performing well, we write letters to the administrators.” They also help students who are having difficulty in the classes, or at least the ones who don’t find physics easy and enjoyable.
Attending boarding school is difficult for her sometimes because she is away from her family, and the distance means she does not see them very often. However, “I like it there, because it means I get to learn things.” According to her the food is okay, but she says this with a slightly sour face, as though she is being polite about it.
She wants to become a doctor, and is already picturing herself as one. “I see doctors and nurses in their uniforms and it makes me so happy. I know one day I will be one.”
Both these girls have been sponsored by the Wanawake Wa Wari Cooperative student group at Cornell University. You can support GHEI Scholarship Program and help a young person in Humjibre attend High School here
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