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CELEBRATING INSPIRING GHANAIAN SUCCESS STORIES (Part One) |
| Posted by Dei-Tumi (admin) on Sep 23 2009 |
He went to the US to study electrical engineering at Rutgers University. After his degree program, he had the wonderful opportunity to work at NASA in 1995. Since then, he has worked as a Rocket Scientist, Complex Systems Engineer and Design Expert and a senior NASA Spacecraft Systems Engineer. Among the many things he has done at NASA include the development of an extra-vehicular infra-red camera and the development and commanding of spacecrafts (over five of them so far). For instance, in 2006, he was the man behind the NASA rocket that launched the Calipso environmental satellite. He is the first African to command a spacecraft in orbit. In March 2001, he was honoured with the NASA Award for Outstanding Performance and US Sapphire Award for outstanding performance.
Aside all these achievements, what I find interesting about this man is where he is coming from. He is Dr. Ave Kludze, a Ghanaian who hails from Hohoe (a town in one of the regions of Ghana) and grew up in Dansoman-Sahara (a popular suburb in Ghana’s capital city, Accra). His story is one of the inspiring stories that do not usually hit the front pages of Ghana’s news headlines. But it is a very inspiring story of the awesome potential we have in Ghana which we need to value, explore, exploit and create opportunities for them to be harnessed.
He was an ordinary Ghanaian youth like you and I but with extraordinary desires, potential and determination. He ate our popular foods like fufu, kenkey, banku and akple. He attended the same senior high schools in Ghana. He sat in our popular and uncomfortable trotros till he left the shores of Ghana after secondary school. But buried beneath his ordinariness lay great potential. You may see yourself as just an ordinary Ghanaian who is trying to make ends meet but there is more hidden in you than meets the eye. Do not look down on yourself, look up to God and look within yourself – you will discover the gem that lies in you.
Moreover, his physical and health limitation did not put a full stop to the achievement of his dreams. His childhood dream was to become a pilot. However, his eyesight challenges did not help him so he decided to go into electrical engineering. And now though he does not physically fly aircrafts, he commands and controls spacecrafts from earth. It is obvious he did not give up totally on his dream of being involved in flying and engineering of aircrafts; why give up on yours?
Finally, I also noticed from reading his story that, he was ready when opportunity came knocking; he did not look for opportunity before getting prepared. He had the opportunity to work at NASA after his degree in electrical engineering. Probably without completing that course, he would not have had this opportunity. Success it is usually said is when preparation meets opportunity. Whatever you desire to accomplish, you need to start preparing yourself from today.
I am an ardent believer in the potential of the Ghanaian. We have loads of talented people here and YOU ARE ONE OF THEM. You just need to recognise that, discover and develop that talent to the highest level possible. What is it that you have been dreaming about? What talent have you discovered you possess? Believe you can go as far as you intend to go and like Barack Obama said, ‘Yes You Can’.
Last changed: Sep 23 2009 at 10:10 AM
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