The quiz mistress of the National Science and Maths Quiz, Prof. Elsie Effah Kaufmann says by the time she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, she was the only black left in her class.

Speaking on Joy Prime’s Prime morning, she recalled during orientation in her first year, there were about sixty blacks but they were told that by the time they graduate, only one of them will be left.

She told herself that she would be the only surviving black by the time of graduation, and through determination, she made that dream a reality in 1992.

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“I remember the first year when we met for orientation, there were more of us about 60 of us and I remember the person giving us the orientation telling us to look to our left and right, by the we’re graduating only one of us will be left.”

“And that’s when I resolved, I am going to be the one that is left and yes by the time we were graduating I was the only black in my class, there were 28 of us that graduated and I was the only black,” she said.

Prof. Kaufmann also indicated that she loves to study a lot and found so much passion in studying Biomedical Engineering.

She added that it gave her the opportunity to explore her potential to the fullest and the chance to also solve various life problems through constant practice.

“Not that it was not difficult, some of the subjects need practice, so I tell my students to hang in there, a lot of the times, you need to keep practising, you need to keep trying and then one day, suddenly it clicks but it takes patience and practice to get there.”

“Patience, determination, practice,” these were the motivating words from Prof. Kaufmann.

The quiz mistress who is also the current Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana obtained her International Baccalaureate Diploma from the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales in 1988.

She proceeded to the University of Pennsylvania for her Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE), and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.