UWC student jets off to US for sport exchange programme
UWC Master’s student Nana Adom-Aboagye is jetting off to the United States this coming weekend to take part in the 17th United Nations Sport, Development and Peace Youth Leadership Programme.
The two-week camp will see Adom-Aboagye, who is also a Research Assistant at the University’s Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Sports Science and Development (ICESSD), rubbing shoulders with 60 participants aged between 18 and 30 from around the world. They will be offered practical training on best practices in the field of sport for development and peace.
The aim of the programme, which takes place from 6 to 20 June 2015, is to assist participants inusing sport as a tool to address social conditions in their home countries. Adom-Aboagye was nominated by ICESSD Director, Professor Marion Keim, for her sterling work in the field, both for the university and the community.
Having just completed her Master’s degree in Sport Management, Adom-Aboagye who was born in Ghana and raised and naturalised in South Africa, sees the camp as an opportunity for her to network and equip herself with the skills needed to get deeply involved in sport for development on the African continent.
“My vision is to work in sport on the African continent and lecture at the same time,” she said before leaving Cape Town this week. “This trip is a launching pad for me and will give me confidence, knowing that I not only have the knowledge and skills, but the people as well in my network to get advice from.”
A former athlete and a hockey player, Adom-Aboagye believes that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in South Africa in her field, but there are impoverished countries on the continent that need it even more.
“Sport taught me discipline, determination and motivation,” she recalls. “These three values helped me get a scholarship to high school through my involvement in sport, and they have now seen me complete my 5th tertiary qualification. This trip will give me an opportunity to learn, so that in future I can give back to community development, especially to women, and show them that they too can achieve what they set their minds to.”
