On Friday, the 18th of September 2020, Soronko Academy graduated the first batch of Rotary Soronko Girls Coding Project. During the graduation ceremony, the ladies presented the various projects they worked on and certificates presentation.
The event drew audience which included Rotarians from Accra-Airport, the Soronko Team, project beneficiaries, members of the press and some students from other Soronko Academy programs. The graduation ceremony officially started with an opening prayer by Miss Beatrice Doku Seyram followed by presentations of project works by the various groups of the graduating Cohort. A total of 7 groups consisting of 3 students presented their works to the audience. We had blogs on Hairbuzz; RJV Recipe; Stay Healthy blog; Lifestyle doses; Steam Danza; KeySpeakup, among others.
Mrs Regina Honu, the CEO of Soronko Academy acted in the capacity of the M.C for the event.The keynote speaker for the occasion, Mrs Theresa Osei Tutu centred her speech on “becoming a change leader/Agent’ with highlights on her life experiences, inspiration, among others. Mrs Osei queried a student of an observation she made during her presentation, she asked why she used more western contents and images in their slides but did not consider the black contents. Among the answers given by the students included the fact that there were a few or no black contents on the internet concerning what they were working on.
In that regard, the keynote speaker argued that the women had the potential to manifest their realities and be more successful. She also encouraged them to get involved by bridging the gap of inadequacy or absence of black contents on the internet. Mrs Osei spoke on how complacency and lack of self-confidence had affected the minds of many and challenged the youth and older generations to accept things as it is, and retarded them from exhibiting their full potential. Wrapping up with her speech, she shared Marrianne Williamson’s quote “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure, it is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us”. Mrs Osei ended her speech with the quote, “if it is to be, it is up to me” – by William Johnson.
The next speaker, Rotarian President Nana Gyamfi Acheampong of Rotary Club Accra-Airport, focused his speech on how the young girls and the youth, in general, could make maximum use of the skills they had acquired and solve societal problems. He attested to the fact that Soronko Academy had shown great capabilities in training and empowering young women to enter the workstream and create opportunities in the job markets.
The Hairbuzz group was announced as the group with the best presentation and project for the first cohort with prizes. Hairbuzz is a blog where individuals could visit and get hair styling tips and advice. Certificates were awarded to each participant, which were presented by representatives of Rotary Club Accra-Airport. There was a group picture taken with all beneficiaries and partners of the project.#mydigitalskills#rotaryopensopportunities#soronkostories#soronkoimpacts#soronkorotarygirlscodingproject
