2013 Community Report

Ashesi University Foundation
Published on July 10, 2014

Ashesi University Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports Ashesi University College, a private, secular, non-profit, 4-year university in Ghana. Dear Friends, Recently, I have attended conferences and listened to intense debates about whether Africa should accept development assistance from other nations. The question, I believe, should not be whether Africans should accept and adapt ideas and assistance from other societies, but rather how we should do this. Clearly, a passive dependency on foreign aid is unhealthy. The answer, however, is not for Africa to strive for independence from the global community; instead, Africa must cultivate a healthy and productive interdependence with the world. At Ashesi, students are taught that as future leaders of Africa, they have a unique responsibility to nd ways to collaborate with others, in ways that benet their continent and the world. Teamwork is integrated into the Ashesi curriculum. In leadership seminars, students practice dealing with ethical dilemmas in teams; they learn to seek allies, to treat community partners with respect, and to lead by example. In courses that foster entrepreneurship and innovation, students work in teams on complex, real-world projects and are challenged to become both responsible leaders and effective collaborators. Twelve years ago, I founded Ashesi to be a hub for new ideas, new ventures, and new solutions for Africa. A generous global community has responded to this vision with donated funds and expertise. Faculty from leading universities help design our curriculum, corporate partners support us in preparing students for a changing global market, and faculty and student exchanges challenge us to engage diverse perspectives. Now, as we move through our second decade, we expect partnerships to play an even bigger role at Ashesi. In this report, you will read examples of diverse collaborations. Ashesi offers the world’s universities, corporations, and NGOs a vibrant pool of African thinkers with strong professional skills and local expertise. These partnerships connect Ashesi students and faculty to new ideas and exciting global trends, and we are eager to expand them. Today we are working with academic and corporate partners and our tremendous donors to build a world-class engineering program. Ashesi is also a hub for productive partnerships between our students, graduates, and faculty and the diverse African communities that they serve, and in which they do business. At Ashesi, we teach students to commit to long term partnerships with local communities. It makes me proud to see how many Ashesi graduate entrepreneurs have built community service into their businesses. I invite you to learn about their work in this report. Generous donors made these collaborations, and all of our work, possible. As we look to the future, we will need more classrooms, labs, and housing to host more of the collaborations that cultivate interdependence with the world and a better future for Africa. I hope that what you read in these pages will inspire you to partner with us as we grow. Sincerely, Patrick Awuah Ashesi Founder and President A message from our Founder and President: Patrick Awuah and Ashesi have received both global and African acclaim: Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year, 2014 | Fast Company, Most Creative People in Business 1000, 2014 | UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Leading Through Innovation Award, 2012 | 4th Most Respected CEO in Ghana, 2012 | Winner, The John P. McNulty Prize, Aspen Institute, 2009 | Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative--Aspen Global Leadership Network | TED Fellows Program: 2007 TED/Global, 2009 TED Fellow ” Ashesi students are taught that as future leaders of Africa, they have a unique responsibility to fnd ways to collaborate with others, in ways that beneft their continent and the world. 1