>>Patrick Awuah: So I came to the United States looking for an education, from Ghana. And
I remember arriving in Philadelphia and taking an anxiety-filled taxi ride from the airport
to Swathmore College. And that ride cost me $20. I had $50 in my pocket when I arrived.
So my first moments in the United States were somewhat anxious. But then I had this amazing
four-year experience of what an education is at a school that subscribed to a model
of education called the liberal arts, which I hadn't heard of before I applied to school
in the U.S. And I encountered faculty who cared, a curriculum that expanded and switched
on my mind. I saw these two huge libraries on campus, worked in very fun labs in the
engineering department, and I lived and learned with amazingly honest students who could be
trusted to take take-home exams, which was just amazing to me.
And after those four years, I went to work at Microsoft as an engineer. A year into Microsoft,
I visited Ghana for the first time. I had been away for five years. And I was utterly
disillusioned. It was a time of despair for me, because Ghana was still ruled by a military
government. Nothing worked. The phones didn't work. The water often didn't run. It was just
wild. And I had classmates who had stayed for their college education in Ghana who studied
computer science by writing code on paper, never wrote code on a machine.
And I was so disillusioned, I called a friend who was doing the Peace Corps in Gabon and
told him, "What are you doing there? You're wasting your time."
And I came back to the U.S. and said, "I will never go back to live and work in Africa."
So that was then. And then a few years later, I became a parent,
and everything changed, because I saw this child, and I realized that Africa matters
a lot for that child, for that child's children, for a generation, a new generation. And I
realized how arrogant I had been, how irresponsible. I do not have the power to disown a continent.
I just don't. So as we learned yesterday, I had to do something.
And I eventually quit Microsoft to go back to Ghana to help with education.
I stumbled on these words: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
Begin it now. So I typed it up and put it on my mirror.
And I saw it every day at a time when I questioned the wisdom of leaving a good career to go
do this wild thing. But before that, I did an exercise in Ghana.
I went back and I spoke with my friends and family. We took every -- any problem and asked
why, and get a set of answers, and took each of those answers and asked why, and tried
to drill down to what -- what's causing all this.
And we came to the conclusion that what we were really talking about, what we were really
looking at was a crisis in leadership, a crisis among all the people in positions of influence.
Some of them are corrupt; some just accepted the status quo; people in positions of influence
who had the power to act who weren't doing so.
And I looked to the educational system, and I was struck by this approach of just learning
by rote from primary school through graduate school, of learning in a very narrow way,
universities with overcrowded classrooms and labs that didn't function, and serious incidents
of academic dishonesty. I also learned that only 5% of college-aged
kids go to college in Ghana. That's true in sub-Saharan Africa. The thing about 5% is
that it's too small. But also, it means that by definition, the people who are fortunate
to go to college in Ghana will run the country one day. And so as I was looking at those
classrooms and those labs, I felt I was looking at a direct predictor of what Ghana would
look like in 30 years, when these 20-year-olds were in their fifties and they were in positions
of leadership. And so I felt, this is a catalytic thing.
I can get engaged with this and make a difference. And so I set about starting this organization,
Ashesi University. We all understand education is about developing the intellect. But it's
also about developing character. So intellectually broad perspectives, the liberal arts, critical
thinking, creativity, problem solving, but character, the values of integrity and compassion
and empathy, courage and grit, strengths that it will take to transform a continent, were
central to what we do. And so we have this broad curriculum with the humanities and the
social sciences and the sciences and math, and we push everyone to be ethical.
The project has involved people from all over the world, people from Africa, from the Americas,
from Europe and Asia; funding from North America and from Ghana. And I love that Ghanaians
walk onto this campus and they see a donor wall that has all these names, American names
and Ghanaian names and the pride that they feel with that.
We empower our students; we celebrate their potential. And we urge them to have this sense
of purpose, this sense of mission, to be more excellent citizens and to inspire them to
greatness. And what a journey it has been for me.
I get to live with these amazing stories. In 2008, a student body in Ghana decided to
adopt a code of honor for exams, to hold themselves individually and corporately responsible for
ethical behavior, and to tell us that it was okay to step out of the exam rooms, because
they would do the right thing. It's captured the imagination of a nation.
People don't believe it. People are inspired by it. All our prospective students, this
is what they care the most about. And these are the people that we can give the keys to
our country one day. I get to hear stories, a team of students
that starts a software company, a woman who runs an orphanage, a man who turns down a
huge bribe offer because it's the wrong thing to do, a woman who's climbing the corporate
ladder, a man two years out of college leading a peace-keeping squad in Liberia.
These are amazing stories for me to live with after having quit what I thought was a good
career. Because this is a far more rewarding career.
I have students who understand now that the best leaders are those who serve their community,
their society. And Goethe was right. Fortune favors those who pursue their dreams, those
who persist in the just cause. I have learned the peace, the well-being that comes from
following a dream. And I believe that fortune will smile on Africa
eventually, and the Renaissance that we dream of, that we seek, will come to pass.
I believe that it will depend on inspired and committed leaders. And the manner in which
we educate those leaders who make all the difference in the world. Thank you.
[ Applause ]