Meet the three receipients of British Council Alumni Awards 2018

The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things - Jean Piaget.

In order to recognise alumni who have distinguished themselves through exemplary leadership in their professions, businesses and communities the British Council presented awards to three alumni who were selected from a global pool of 1,700 applications through a rigorous selection process by esteemed judges spanning the industry.

The awardees are Dr Mavis Asare, Mr Percy Asare Ansah and Dr Thomas Amatey Tagoe.

The Alumni Awards 2018 recognised and celebrated the benefits that studying at a United Kingdom (UK) university has had upon the individual, their community and country.

In all, three categories of awards were presented. They are: Professional Achievement Award, Entrepreneurial Award and Social Impact Award.

Professional Achievement Award

This award recognises alumni who have distinguished themselves through exemplary leadership and achievements in their professional industry; and who can demonstrate the scale of their achievements and how they have made a strong and positive difference in their profession and society.

Entrepreneurial Award

Successful applicants in this category will be active in initiating or contributing to innovative new business opportunities with strong growth prospects.

Social Impact Award

The Social Impact Award acknowledges alumni who have made an exceptional contribution and commitment to creating positive social change and improving the lives of others.

Mr Percy Asare Ansah

Mr Ansah was the receipient of the Entrepreneur Award. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Premier Health Insurance Company, the second largest private health insurance company in Ghana.

For him, hard work pays; therefore, from a very humble beginning of two staff members in 2011, the company now serves as an employment avenue for 53 persons.
He has managed to turn around a seed capital of USD 50,000 to USD 10,000,000 within seven years.

Mr Ansah has been involved in health insurance throughout his career.

                                                                          Mr Percy Asare Ansah

Having started as a Field Officer at the Ghana Healthcare Company, he joined the Nationwide Mutual Healthcare as an Operations Manager after he obtained his Master’s degree.

He was again engaged by Momentum Health to commence their operations in Ghana in 2007. In April 2011, he left to start Premier Health Insurance.

Mr Ansah, who was born on September 4, 1970, started his primary education at the Ridge Experimental School in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.

After successfully completing his secondary education, he gained admission to the University of Cape Coast and graduated with a degree in Educational Psychology and Diploma in Economics.

He proceeded further in his education to study MSc. Business Management at University of Hull and also pursued a professional course in insurance.

Mr Ansah is a devoted Presbyterian and presently a council member of the Bible Society of Ghana.

According to him, the University of Hull helped in equipping him with the qualities he needed to manage his business.

“I really appreciate the rich content of the programme and the exemplary work culture I experienced in the UK,” he mentioned.

He hopes to increase his policy holders from the current 45,000 to 200,000 within the next three years.

Dr Thomas Amatey Tagoe

Dr Tagoe is a Neuroscientist at the University of Ghana and Co-founder of GhScientific, an organisation focused on building capacity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through public engagement and outreach activities.

He won the Social Impact Award. Since 2014, GhScientific has run 15 public engagement projects and three workshops through which over 2,500 people have been engaged.

One of these projects - The SHAPE Project - was the basis of a 2016 TedxAccra Talk he delivered on “How to make science education more interesting in Africa”.

Dr Tagoe is the Regional Secretary of the Ghana Science Association and acts as the lead on The Horizon, a morning radio show to communicate science.

                                                                         Dr Thomas Amatey Tagoe

Additionally, Dr Tagoe is a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana where he is developing world-class research, as well as being responsible for the training of students in the biological and allied health sciences.

Dr Tagoe loves to challenge his students and the people he engages to go beyond conventional knowledge and consider application relevant to the context they find themselves in.

Through his public engagement work, Dr Tagoe has brought STEM in an engaging manner to many people and by so doing, has given them positive experiences with STEM.

As an academic trained at the University of Leicester, training others, researching and publishing are at the core of what he does.

The culture at the University of Leicester taught him a multi-disciplinary approach to innovation, collaboration and communicating research to persons both in and outside academia.

Dr Tagoe celebrates these values and believes that all tertiary institutions should inculcate these skills into their students.

He is helping to train a new generation in and out of academia who are scientifically savvy and appreciate the impact of STEM skills in everyday life.

Dr Mavis Asare

Dr Asare, who is a Clinical Health Psychologist, won the Professional Achievement Award. She obtained a Commonwealth Scholarship to Loughborough University, UK to specialise in the application of psychological interventions in sports.

At the moment, she is a Senior Lecturer at the Methodist University and a Practitioner at PLC, Ghana.
She conducts clinical assessment and behaviour therapies for mental health disorders among young people, adults and sportsmen.

Dr Asare also works as a consultant to some sports clubs in Ghana on psychological issues in sports.

She has published numerous clinical research papers.

                                                                         Dr Mavis Asare

One of her recent publications is: “The Need for Clearance in Relaxation Therapy: Development of the Relaxation Clearance Tool for Practitioners.”

This screening tool has helped to reduce reported side effects associated with relaxation therapies.