Categories: Lifestyle

Ghanaian Teen Accepted By 24 Universities Chooses Columbia University

As high school seniors prepare themselves to walk the stage on their way to receiving a diploma, a young Ghanaian student, Akosua Beoke (pictured), in the United States has proven that her father’s sacrifice paid off. Beoke, a Greensboro, N.C. teenager has selected New York Ivy League institution Columbia University thus culminating a long journey for she and her family.

SEE ALSO: Ghanaian Teen Kwasi Enin Accepted To All 8 Ivy League Institutions

Akosua’s father, Frank Beoke, traveled to the North Carolina town seven years ago despite doing well in his native country. The elder Beoke, however, considered his children’s success to be far more paramount than his own. Fox 8 WGHP has more:

Beoke and her family moved to Greensboro from Ghana seven years ago. Her father Frank Beoke said it was a sacrifice well worth it for the opportunities for his children.

“It’s a sacrifice; I was actually in a good paying job back in Ghana, but then the family comes first,” Beoke said.

His daughter certainly impressed a great number of schools, with 24 universities around the country accepting her application. Her 2100 score on the SAT also helped her standings with the colleges and universities she and her family were reviewing.

As one of 45 graduating seniors at The Early College at Guilford school, Akosua was courted by six Ivy League schools, including Columbia, in the college search process.

Watch news coverage of Akosua Beoke’s academic success here:

 

 

 

Akosua says that while schoolwork was never a hurdle, adjusting to the cultural differences between Ghana and the United States was harder.

“One of the things that hit me was that Americans have really low perceptions of Africans, and I came from a middle-class African background so I was really shocked that they thought I lived in the jungle or something,” she shared.

Despite the ignorance she faced, Akosua is well on her way to greater heights as she enters Columbia this fall as a potential economics major.

 SEE ALSO: Ghanaian IT Consultant Is YALI Fellowship Recipient

D.L. Chandler

D.L. Chandler is a veteran of the Washington D.C. Metro writing scene, working as a journalist, reporter and culture critic. Getting his start in the late 1990s in print, D.L. joined the growing field of online reporting in 1998. His first big break came with the now-defunct Politically Black in 1999, the nation's first Black political news portal. D.L. has worked in the past for OkayPlayer, MTV News, Metro Connection and several other publications and magazines. D.L., a native Washingtonian, resides in the Greater Washington area.

View Comments

  • Firt of all, I will like to say congrats to Miss Akosua. I will admit that there are a few ignorant folks who do not know much about the economical diveristy and lifestyle in Africa or any other parts of the world. They are plain and simple internationally ignorant. Yet, I would say not all of we Americans/U.S. citizens are.

    My experience of attempting to build a relationship with newbies to the U.S. particular in the Los Angeles area have been mixed (key words here is my EXPERIENCE). I find the women to be clan-isn and the men only willing to talk for "relations outside of marriage" as a whole.

    My mother worked with a beautiful couple from Kenya who believed as Akosua in regards to we Americans were brainwashed with media images of "Feed the Children" which showed motherless African children begging for help standing on an unpaved road in some random village. Luckily, I have ran across a mechanic from Nigerian who not only treats my car well but has taken me under his wings and invited me to family parties which I am honored. He has become my liason to new to America thinking (although at times I jokingly accuse him of commiting a "Nigerian scam" randomly). I know he doesn't speak for all Africans but he gives me a better understand in regards to why my African sisters and brothers stay away from their black Americas sisters and brothers. He said bottomline they think we are uncivilized and that he get criticized for owning a business in the "Black" community. So it has been my experince that we black Americans are not trusted by the "Originals". Granted that all Africans are not black I'm speaking from the above perspective. I say all this to say open up, share your stories and give us an opportunity to connect to our original homeland until we are able to visit. In return we will open up and embrace you in your new home.

    OMG, I almost forgot about my drum teacher Pape and his family from Senegal. Lovely people with kind spirit who are open to share their life journey.

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