Jonathan Kennedy Sowah dropped out of college to be taught robotics. Now he is instructing STEM throughout Ghana
His firm, InovTech STEM Middle, travels to varsities throughout Ghana to show college students and
His firm, InovTech STEM Middle, travels to varsities throughout Ghana to show college students and lecturers the ins and outs of STEM via robotics training.
“Computing [and coding] ought to be like a primary language — each baby ought to be taught,” Sowah, 23, says.
InovTech STEM Middle provides classes in internet design, app growth and 3D modeling and printing, amongst different expertise. Workshops empower college students to flex their artistic muscular tissues and discover methods to use the teachings they be taught within the classroom to the tech discipline.
“Now they know the relevance of what they’re studying at school. They know that if I will be taught geometry, that is what I can do with a robotic,” 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 concerned about info know-how (IT) from a younger age, however he grew pissed off with the way it was being taught at school. So, at 13 years outdated, Sowah determined to drop out and get a job at an area web café.
“I knew I might achieve this a lot better, and I used to be so restricted,” he recollects.
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 used to be at all times researching, I used to be studying new issues.”
The self-taught laptop scientist ultimately went again to highschool and enrolled in Labone Senior Excessive Faculty with desires of changing into a neurosurgeon. However as soon as once more, Sowah says he was disillusioned with an absence of emphasis on IT. This time, he took it upon himself to start out a artistic know-how membership known as CREATECH.
“We began studying. We began instructing ourselves as properly. After which we began going for robotics competitions,” Sowah says.
He credit his geography trainer for pushing him to show CREATECH into the InovTech STEM Middle. Immediately, 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 faculties. However Sowah tells CNN many rural areas nonetheless face important challenges to training.
“You go to those locations, they usually do not have computer systems,” he says. “It is as much as us to be taught it because the privileged ones after which go and train the underprivileged ones.”
A “studying nation”
Along with bettering entry to sources, Sowah is decided to assist shut the gender hole in STEM.
InovTech STEM Middle empowers younger girls via its “STEM for Her” outreach program and likewise launched a “Woman Energy Workshop” final yr.
“We needed to introduce ladies to the thrilling a part of robotics, for them to fulfill these folks which can be already within the trade doing robotic or tech-related careers, after which mentor them, train them after which information 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, notably in Ghana, “as a result of what we’re doing, we’re doing for our nation.”
“My dream for Ghana is a Ghana [where] each pupil [has] entry to training … irrespective of the place they’re,” he provides. “A Ghana [where] each trainer is expert … [and] has the precise to sources to coach the scholars, to encourage them and empower them.”