My Life as a College Student

GORDON KUSSI TABIRI English Writing: From Start to Finish My life as a college student Seven years ago I gained admission to pursue a B. A program in one of the prestigious universities in Ghana. The name of the university is Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). I was offered a four year bachelor degree program leading to a degree in Sociology and Social Work. Thus, I read BA Sociology and Social Work. I was so happy at the time because of two reasons.

One was that, I had tried twice to be admitted into the countries universities but refused until finally the third time of which I succeeded. The second reason why I was happy was related to the fact that I had the opportunity to continue my education to a level that I had always dream about. My first year as a fresher on campus was very interesting for me. I was to read sociology and social work as a major and Geography as my minor.

I therefore registered for my courses for the first year which included subjects such as introduction to sociology, traditional social structure of Ghana, introduction to human geography, development of geographic thought, introduction to physical environmental systems, communication skills, introduction to computers, and ethics and etiquette in traditional systems. I read these subjects for the first and second semesters as my first year program. I attended all lectures, wrote my assignments and the years exams. The results of the exams came and I had a Cumulative Weighted Average (CWA) of 59. 17.

I was so disappointed about my results and decided to make better grades no matter what it takes to do so. I wrote the second semester exams and improved upon my performance by obtaining a CWA of 60. 32. I realized the fact that increasing the hours of my studies yielded good results. My second year on campus was very exciting. This was because I made very good friends and also had acquainted myself with campus life in general. I had a good friend by name Christian Boateng who happens to be an old classmate at Akrokerri College of Education where we both obtained our diploma in basic education in the year 2001.

Christian was very instrumental in my life on campus because he taught me how to study for long hours. We actually took similar courses together in the first two years of our education in KNUST College. We were also roommates for three years and shared a lot of things together. My second year courses also included literature in English, introduction to geomorphology, theory and practice of geography, principles of cartography, concepts and theories in sociology, social structure of modern Ghana as well as the nature of social work. The courses were very challenging especially those related to geography.

I had a successful year and also improved on my performance. This second year was very significant to my life because it was during this period that I decided to read a master’s program after graduation. That year helped me realized a lot of my potentials and also changed my perception of life in general. My third year in KNUST also saw me reading courses such as perspectives in sociological theory, research methods, theoretical framework for social work methodology, industrial sociology, medical sociology, and also bamboo and rattan processing.

I enjoyed reading these courses especially industrial sociology, medical sociology as well as sociological theory. During my third year, we were made to drop our minor course, so I concentrated only on the major which was sociology and social work and also other borrowed courses. I also managed to secure the same room on campus with my friend, Christian. We both studied hard and had very good grades in our third year exams. We also had lots of fun on campus until school vacated. Christian was actually based in Kumasi which is the city in Ghana were KNUST was located whereas I was also based at Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

In view of this, I spent most of my school holidays in Accra with my family. During the long vacation after the end of the third year, I had an attachment with Tetteh Quashie Memorial Hospital situated at Akuapem Mampong. I was attached to the social welfare department of the hospital where I performed generic social work. It was a great experience since I had practical training in dealing with social welfare cases of clients at the hospital, district court and the district family social welfare cases. My mentors taught me so well that by the time I finished my attachment, I had developed a passion of working as a social worker someday.

After my attachment, I prepared for my final year academic work. On arriving on campus for my final year, I registered for courses such as social psychology, social development, human resource management, approaches to counselling in social work, environmental sociology and a long essay dissertation. I had actually started writing my BA thesis in the third year of my studies. My topic was, “the role of non-formal education to the contribution of the social and economic development of Ghana: a case study of the Ejisu- Juaben Municipality”.

It was a great and challenging topic to write, in that there wasn’t much literature on the subject of non-formal education. Owing to that, I researched the web widely in writing this project. My supervisor by name Mr. Barnie gave me all the directions and support so well that I obtained an excellent grade in this long essay. I was very excited because I was constrained by time in combining my academic work with writing of this thesis. In spite of all the challenges, my hard work paid off with me obtaining very good grades in all my final courses I took.

Thus, I completed all my forth year course exams and was ready for graduation. We were to graduate exactly one month after completion of all the necessary course requirements. I was among one of the students who were to graduate with second class upper (honors) degree in sociology and social work. During graduation, my uncle and a cousin of mine accompanied me, and it is a day that I will never forget in my life. I dressed neatly in my graduation gown and went through the ceremony very happy of my accomplishments. After the ceremony I took several pictures with friends and my family and we had a great party after the occasion.

I would never forget my experience on campus because it transformed my life. My general outlook of life has changed tremendously. I now understand that I have great capabilities as well as weaknesses. My college experience has contributed in shaping my personality today. I have learnt to work hard to overcome my weaknesses as well as develop my potentials and capabilities. This is the reason that I had saved money to pursue a master’s program in Switzerland to be able to actualize my dreams and aspirations in life.