Seventeen female students of the Department of Physics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), have benefited from the Dr. K. C. Whittaker Endowment Fund.

The beneficiaries were awarded for their exceptional academic performance in Physics.

The 16 undergraduates and 1 postgraduate female students received ¢2,500 each. 

The Dr. K. C. Whittaker Endowment Fund was started by the late Dr. Rose Whittaker in 1998 to award excellent female students in Physics. 

The award scheme was established to attract female students to pursue a career in physics.

Provost of the College of Science, Prof Leonard Amekudzi urged awardees to make their impact felt on the society.

“As you finish school, know that you have to impact society. Society must benefit from what you do,” he said.

One of the beneficiaries, Miss. Azumah Abandoh, a PhD Material Science student, thanked the foundation for the kind gesture.

Mrs. Irene Schandorf, a board member, presented cheques on behalf of Eric Inkumsah, the board chairman to the beneficiaries.

Background

The Dr K. C Whittaker Endowment fund, was established on 12th December, 1997, in line with the wishes of the late Mrs Rose Adwoa Whittaker, as directed in her will, for the sole purpose of promoting female education in the field of Physics in Ghana.

The original Trustees were Dr Docia Kisseih, Madam Rosina Ampofo and Mr William Eric Inkumsah, all of blessed memory.

Mrs Rose Adwoa Whittaker, affectionately called Auntie Rose, was born to a Fanti mother and a British father. She spent her early years in Tamale, with her parents, and was a product of Tamale Secondary School. She later trained as a midwife, and worked at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. She later ventured into the hospitality industry and started a 5-bedroom guest house at Danyame in Kumasi, called Rose’s Guest House.

She later acquired a bigger parcel of land at No. 4 old Bekwai Road, and relocated Rose’s Guest House, currently called Vienna City, there. Auntie Rose, who was a philanthropist and a keen golfer as well, married Dr K.C Whittaker, who became the first Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology, KNUST.

Mrs Rose Whittaker died in 1995 at the age of 74 years, and directed in her Will that the original Trustees should institute an educational fund, called the Dr K. C. Whittaker Endowment Fund in honour of her late husband to offer a scholarship to one female student pursuing a degree course in Physics at the KNUST annually.

The Trustees of the Estate of Mrs Rose Whittaker, therefore established the Endowment Fund in 1997 and have since 1998 granted scholarships to a female undergraduate for each of the four levels, and later MPHIL students, pursuing courses in physics and Meteorology annually, based on their academic performance. Since 1998, i.e. a period of some 25 years, the Fund has granted scholarships to over 200 female students.

From a humble beginning of supporting one female student, the number has risen steadily over the years.

From 2010 to 2018, the number steadily rose from eight (8) To fifteen (15) students annually with an increase in the quantum per student.

From 2019, the number increased to twenty two (22). However, in this edition, there was a drop in the number to seventeen (17), though there has been an increase in the quantum of support per each student.