As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, MTN Ghana has awarded the first set of 100 beneficiaries of the MTN Bright Scholarship Award to give brilliant but needy students the opportunity to go through tertiary education.
The worth of the scholarship covers their tuition fees, accommodation, and a stipend of GHC500, per semester, which caters for books and other learning materials.
Receipients, including 10 persons with disability, thronged the Headquarters of MTN with their parents to receive their first stipend of GHC500 as well an official congratulation from CEO of MTN, Selorm Adadevoh, for winning the scholarship award.
The MTN BRIGHT scholarship Award seeks to support a total of 300 brilliant but needy students on annual basis. This means that every year a group of 100 students will benefit from the award for the next two years.
Over 1,500 students applied for the award scheme but only 100 made it to the top after strict scrutiny by the panel of judges and the commitment level of the applicants. However only 305 females, which constitutes 26% of the total applicants, were female.
MTN Bright scholarship Award Project Team comprises cross functional teams from MTN Ghana Foundation, Corporate Communications and Marketing Regional teams.
Selorm Adadevoh said aside the excitement, his outfit expects three basic requirements which are good leadership skills, integrity, and the can do spirit while adding that the scholarship does not end after the school but the student should act as social changers and challenge the status quo.
“So please remember that there are some expectations. First of all leadership. We know you are going to face challenges and we expect you to show the right level of leadership to overcome those challenges. Leadership to influence the course, leadership to influence those around you, and leadership to improve the communities within which you find yourselves.” He asserted.
He added, “Integrity is absolutely critical. In that journey you are going to be tested in different ways and those of you who are strong enough will survive and those of you who aren’t will be break. It’s a tough challenge so prepare yourself. Someday a lot of people will follow that part and you’d realize you were on the right path.”
He was confident that the scholarship is one which will lead the beneficiaries to a lot of great places in the future.
Corporate Services Executive of MTN, Samuel Koranteng, said the telecommunications giant is pleased with this Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative which focuses on the youth because they are the future leaders.
He urged the students to make the best of the opportunity given them.
In an interview with www.ghanaweb.com, Mr Koranteng said, “We are excited for them (students) and we expect that they take their education seriously and excel in whatever academic discipline they have chosen for themselves. And as MTN has helped them in their educational journey, we expect that the finish their relevant courses wherever their educational path will take them. They come back to the communities where they came from to do as much as they can to impact society.”
On tracking the performances of the students, he disclosed that the MTN Foundation has a monitoring and evaluating scheme which ensure that the team keep in touch with all the students who are on the programme.
Samuel Koranteng reiterated that, “we will track their journey through the education and how they are doing to ensure that they are able to maximize the benefits of this scholarship scheme.”
