Aburi Presby SHTS past student excels at UG
HE attended the Presbyterian Senior High Technical School at Aburi in the Eastern Region, where he studied General Arts with electives in Economics, Mathematics, Geography and Government.
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After his secondary education, Lancelot Allotey had to postpone his pursuit of tertiary education for seven years due to circumstances beyond his control.
But when he was able to enter the University of Ghana in 2018 to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Allotey graduated top of his cohort, with a major in music and a Final Grade Point Average of 3.82, obtaining First Class.
As a result of his academic performance, he emerged as a Valedictorian at the March 2023 Congregation for students of the College of Humanities Undergraduate Programmes held in Accra last Wednesday.
The event was for students who had completed their Bachelor of Fine Arts and Arts undergraduate programmes under the university’s College of Humanities.
It was part of a week-long congregation to graduate 11,711 students.
They were made up of 8,331 students graduating with Bachelors degrees, 462 with diplomas and 2,918 graduate students comprising 102 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and 2,816 Masters students.
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Allotey, a Lance Corporal in the Ghana Police Service, had served as a Senior Prefect from 2009 to 2011 while at the Presbyterian Senior High Technical School at Aburi.
During the seven-year period he was not able to pursue tertiary education, Lance Corporal Allotey discovered interest in teaching and music and took up volunteer work offering private tuition in music.
In the year 2018, when he enrolled at the university, Mr Allotey, as a member of the Brass Ensemble of the Department of Music, with a specialty in playing the trumpet, was lead trumpeter in student productions, departmental concerts and several performances.
At Level 300, he was the Brass Ensemble's student director and was elected President of the Association of Students of Performing Arts for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Married with two children, Allotey, who is one of the four valedictorians at the March 2023 congregation, aspires to pursue an academic career in music.
The other valedictorians are Jacklord Agyabeng Amponsah, formerly of the Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, Legon; Silvia Esi Wobil, a former student of the Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast, and Habib Abdul-Nasir, who attended the Labone Senior High School.
Delivering the Valedictory speech on behalf of his colleagues, Mr Allotey recounted how he was able to combine work and schooling.
"My first few weeks on campus were quite difficult, being both a student and a worker.
After my night duty shift, I had to report to class the next morning and then back to work in the evening after lectures.
"There were times when I struggled to stay awake during lectures, but as the saying goes, ‘you cannot cheat nature,’" he said.
Mr Allotey expressed appreciation to the university's management for giving them an environment conducive for teaching, learning and research.
In her address, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, said over 500 students of the university had been awarded scholarships for the 2022/2023 academic year, through the Students Financial Aid Office.
The scholarships, she said, were awarded to brilliant, deserving students, some of whom were living with disability.
The Deputy Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Limited, Cynthia Lumor, who was guest speaker, charged the graduands to show empathy in their daily lives.
In an address read on her behalf, the Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Mary Chinery-Hesse, called on the graduands to use what they had learnt to impact their society positively.
