About Me : My name is Vera Asuamuzuah . My family and I moved to the USA when I was 15. I began school in the US as a sophomore in high school. I was mostly quiet and spent a lot of time in the library. It was during high school that I first learned about volunteering. I found it very fulfilling to be able to dedicate my time to give back. It wasn’t until I became a sophomore in college at Colorado State University, and won the Puksta Scholarship when I started intensely researching on access to clean water in Ghana. By the time I graduated, I returned to Ghana for the first time and worked with a team to drill a borehole on a village called Potomu. I wanted to do more work in this field of international development. As a result, I pursued a Masters of Development Practice degree at Regis University and founded Strengthening African Initiatives (SAI Ghana). The flagship program for this organization is TripOnStem. The goal of Triponstem is to ensure that brilliant, but disadvantage students in Ghana become agents of change and pursue higher education including STEM degrees and careers through developing their interest in solving challenges in their communities. Today, TripOnStem is in it development phase. The program is set to pilot the next academic year in Ghana.

Challenge Faced : One of the biggest challenges I faced was accepting my calling. In college, I knew I was going to graduate and go to Medical school or Physicians Assistant school. Well, I lost that desire after shadowing some doctors and PA’s. This meant my life had to take a completely new turn. That was hard to accept considering the expectations of family, friends, counselors, mentors etc. my work in development requires a lot of commitment to. It has its ups and downs and can be discouraging.