Jonathan Kennedy Sowah dropped out of faculty to study robotics. Now he is instructing STEM throughout Ghana
His firm, InovTech STEM Heart, travels to colleges throughout Ghana to show college students and lecturers the ins and outs of STEM by robotics schooling.
“Computing [and coding] should be like a basic language — every child should learn,” Sowah, 23, says.
InovTech STEM Heart presents classes in internet design, app growth and 3D modeling and printing, amongst different abilities. Workshops empower college students to flex their artistic muscle groups and discover methods to use the teachings they study within the classroom to the tech area.
“Now they know the relevance of what they’re learning in class. They know that if I’m able to learn geometry, this is what I can do with a robot,” he says.
A defining second
Like many entrepreneurs, Sowah’s path to success was a bit unconventional. The Ghanaian was born and raised within the coastal township of Teshie, near the capital Accra, the place he spent most days working at his grandmother’s provisions retailer.
He says he was enthusiastic about data expertise (IT) from a younger age, however he grew pissed off with the way it was being taught in class. So, at 13 years previous, Sowah determined to drop out and get a job at an area web café.
“I knew I could do so much better, and I was so restricted,” he remembers.
As soon as he had free entry to the web, he says he spent his spare time browsing the net to observe robotics tutorials, including “I was always researching, I was learning new things.”
The self-taught laptop scientist ultimately went again to highschool and enrolled in Labone Senior Excessive Faculty with goals of changing into a neurosurgeon. However as soon as once more, Sowah says he was disillusioned with a scarcity of emphasis on IT. This time, he took it upon himself to begin a artistic expertise membership known as CREATECH.
“We started learning. We started teaching ourselves as well. And then we started going for robotics competitions,” Sowah says.
He credit his geography instructor for pushing him to show CREATECH into the InovTech STEM Heart. Right now, the corporate is reaching college students and lecturers all through the nation. It really works intently with the Ghana Instructional Service to purchase robotics kits and work with colleges. However Sowah tells CNN many rural areas nonetheless face important challenges to schooling.
“You go to these places, and they don’t have computers,” he says. “It’s up to us to learn it as the privileged ones and then go and teach the underprivileged ones.”
A “learning nation”
Along with enhancing entry to sources, Sowah is set to assist shut the gender hole in STEM.
InovTech STEM Heart empowers younger ladies by its “STEM for Her” outreach program and in addition launched a “Girl Power Workshop” final 12 months.
“We wanted to introduce girls to the exciting part of robotics, for them to meet those people that are already in the industry doing robotic or tech-related careers, and then mentor them, teach them and then guide them,” Sowah says, including he believes the federal government can do extra to assist the development of STEM.
Sowah asks the federal government and different worldwide organizations to spend money on STEM throughout Africa, significantly in Ghana, “because what we are doing, we are doing for our country.”
“My dream for Ghana is a Ghana [where] every student [has] access to education … no matter where they are,” he provides. “A Ghana [where] every teacher is skilled … [and] has the right to resources to train the students, to inspire them and empower them.”
