KNUST-Atlanta Chapter holds end of year dinner dance 2022
The Atlanta branch of the KNUST Alumni Association of North America on Friday December 30th, 2022 held another great end-of-year Dinner Dance at the Café Songhai West African eatery at Peachtree Corners, Georgia-USA.
This annual event of the chapter seeks to bring technocrats and families as well as affiliates in the Metro Atlanta area, the State of Georgia and the entire United States together to celebrate the end of a successful year, share knowledge, promote themselves and have a good time.
This year’s well-attended event started around 8:20pm with an opening prayer from Mr. Eric Oduro.
Mr. Kwame Boafo (Ras Armani), the President of the Atlanta Chapter in a brief welcome address wished every guest a merry Christmas and thanked them for making the time for the occasion. He took the opportunity to introduce the three speakers for the night: Mr. Ben Akrong, CEO of Strong Tower Realty Inc.(STR), Nana Gyamfi Adwabour, Executive Director of Center for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling- CENDLOS and Dr. Robert Baffour-Awuah, Professor of Engineering-University of Georgia.
Mr. Ben Akrong spoke about the need to consider real estate investment. He said one cannot rely on their children to take care of them in old age as they will also have financial burdens, neither can one rely on social security benefit since it is not adequate. "I don’t have the data but I believe over 60% of all rich people in America went through real estate," he said.
He added that "if you invest in real Estate, you will not have to depend on your children or Social Security to survive at old age." He ended by quoting the good book; 'a good man leaves inheritance for his children’s children. Prov. 13-22.'
Nana Gyamfi Adwabour (Skyy) who is also an Alumnus and currently the Executive Director of CENDLOS took the opportunity to talk about Ghana's Ministry of Education initiative to infuse technology into the Ghanaian education system. He said there are several ways the Alumni and the Diaspora as a whole can collaborate to help this program to make ICT education assessable to all Ghanaians. During the pandemic he noted that over 1.2 million students were able to utilize this program to gain access to education.
This is a very significant achievement, he said. He identified four major areas that the Diaspora can support; Infrastructure (devices and connectivity); Content (Learning materials, software); Capacity Building (Training); and Assessment. Nana Gyamfi declared that he has an open-door policy and willing to talk to anyone who shares the same vision for the future of education in Ghana as the constitution demands.
Dr. Baffour, a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia who has developed programs to assist freshmen gain admission to some of the prestigious Universities in the United States also advised parents on the need to pay attention to their children’s education.
"High school education in this country is different from what we know in Ghana and that is why there is the need to understand the process.
"Even if you don’t understand what your child is studying when they come home make sure that they do their homework and just take a look at it, that alone is fine," Dr. Baffour said.
The last speaker for the night Mr. Clement Quartey-Papafio, National President of KNUST-Alumni Association of North America seized the opportunity to raise funds for the KNUST 70@70 Anniversary. He also acknowledged the presence of some of the founding fathers of the association and some dedicated members. He was able to raise $ 1,870.00 out of the targeted $ 2,500.00 for the night.
The event was climaxed with gifts raffle, the usual good food, music and dance in a great environment.
Dr. Ama Baafra Abeberese, Professor of Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts thanked everybody who made the time to attend the event.
“KNUST appreciates your attendance tonight. We wish everybody a happy ending to 2022 and a glorious 2023,” she said.
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