Taking up a great journey from the toughest time in your school days comes with a lot of struggle. For a man like George Asiamah, the blurry start and the hope that there was no future in a result that would not give you access to any tertiary education from senior high school was above his head.
In the age of social media, he told his own story about how his journey started.
From his own narrations, he had a rocky start to education, earning what many would term an embarrassing failure of 4 Fs and 3 Es during his West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
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Today, he is not only a PhD holder, but he also lectures at Oxford University, the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating university globally.
His Own Words: A 25-Year Transformation
In one of his posts, he wrote:
BECE (Chichibong) (Kumasi) SSSCE (Trabuom) MSc (Belfast) → PhD + Postdoc (Sheffield) → Lecturer (Oxford). A quarter of a century later, the boy became the story. That truant kid from Chichibong became a lecturer at Oxford (the world’s most iconic university).
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BA. If I could travel back 25 years, I’d tap that little boy on the shoulder and say, ‘We made it, my guy.’ Never underestimate what grace, grit, and small beginnings can do. Se wahyeases na esua, w’awie beye kakraa!
In earlier posts, Dr George Asiamah has spoken about how he faced academic setbacks early on, struggling to gain admission to a senior high school due to his low junior high grades.
He shared how, with the advice of a relative, he chose a public school as his third option and was admitted, with the initial plan for him to study general science, but his uncle encouraged him to switch to business.
And to support his studies, this uncle, he shared, bought him a bicycle, which motivated him to attend classes regularly.
But despite his initial dedication, Dr Asiamah said his progress was disrupted when his school decided to cancel the business programme, ultimately pushing him to the point where he lost interest in his studies and often skipped classes.
And that was what led to his lack of focus and how he poorly performed in the WAEC examinations. For him, that result was a “disgrace”.
Turning Point at KNUST
But he was determined to improve his study habits, and that came about with him securing admission to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he earned a degree in economics.
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During his time at KNUST, he served as president of the Economics Students’ Association and worked as a teaching assistant.
George’s hard work and dedication earned him a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in sustainable development at Queen’s University Belfast in the United Kingdom.
From Grass to Grace: A Global Scholar
His academic journey further culminated with an interdisciplinary PhD in sustainability science and public policy at the University of Sheffield, fully funded by a scholarship.
In a very recent post, he wrote:
From F in chains in 2003… to a PhD scholarship in 2018 – The 15-Year Walk from Grass to Grace!””If you ask me now how I made it… I will say, all credit to the 2007-2008 version of me.
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The one who picked up the broken pieces, dusted off the shame, and quietly decided that failure was not going to be his final chapter.
The mark he has left on the academic world extends far beyond his personal achievements. Dr Asiamah’s story has become a beacon of hope for countless students across Ghana and beyond, proving that academic failure is not a life sentence but rather a stepping stone to greatness.
His journey from Chichibong to Oxford represents more than just personal triumph—it embodies the dreams of every student who has ever stared at disappointing results and wondered if their future was over.
Today, as he walks the hallowed halls of Oxford University, the same institution that has produced 28 British prime ministers and over 70 Nobel Prize winners, Dr Asiamah carries with him the hopes and aspirations of young people who see in his story the possibility of their own redemption.
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The bicycle his uncle bought him all those years ago has become a symbol of how small acts of kindness and belief can change a life forever. That simple gift, meant to encourage regular class attendance, set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to one of the most prestigious academic positions in the world.
Dr Asiamah’s story reminds us that sometimes the greatest victories come from the deepest defeats and that the measure of a person is not in how they fall but in how they rise.
