Ashesi University Founder Patrick Awuah Named 2015 MacArthur Genius Fellow

The MacArthur Foundation has named Patrick Awuah (pictured left, white shirt), founder of Ashesi University, a Genius fellow, which isn’t surprising given Awuah’s track record.

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When I first wrote about Ashesi University,  a private university located near Accra, Ghana, it was hard to deny the strong vision and stellar focus of Awuah who is a former Microsoft manager and software engineer who returned home to Ghana to improve opportunities in higher education.

At the time, I wrote:

Ashesi University currently educates close to 600 students from across Africa and is expected to grow to 1,300 students by the end of next year.

The university’s motto is “Scholarship. Leadership. Citizenship.” and students are exposed to a wide range of internship and post-graduation employment, above and beyond the average opportunity afforded to the average African college student.

The Ashesi network also boasts connections to private firms, including Bank of America,McKinsey, and General Electric. Recently, Awuah was named among Fortune Magazine’s 2015 50 Greatest World Leaders, alongside other individuals like Pope Francis, Bill & Melinda Gates, Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.

Ashesi boasts a 95 percent graduation rate within four years and 100 percent job placement for students upon graduation.

Ashesi University also strives for gender equity across degrees and recently announced an innovative Engineering major to launch this fall.

I — along with Face2Face Africa — are proud to congratulate Mr. Awuah on being named a 2015 Genius Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation. The fellowship has a sizeable honorarium for honorees to develop their content area.

Wishing Awuah and Ashesi University continued success!

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