Faculty: Forestry
Program: Master of Sustainable Forest Management
Year: 2016
Country: Ghana
Josephine was determined to study as school was the one place she found the most happiness and a sense of belonging. Josephine was admitted into one of Ghana’s top universities, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and completed a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources Technology. Driven by her passion for meaningful community service, Josephine served as an interviewer for a household survey component of a study that was designed to assess the economic value of key ecosystem services, notably water provided by the Atewa Forest in Ghana. The outcomes of this project would contribute to the decision making process, and improve protection of the Atewa forest while working towards a government led process to change the protection status of the Forest Reserve into a National Park.
The decision to study the Master of Sustainable Forest Management at the University of British Columbia underlines her desire to be a part of an education system that has a long standing tradition of comprehensive research-based teaching and learning. The MSFM program will offer Josephine the ideal platform to specialize in knowledge-specific forestry practices. Josephine’s career aspiration after the course is to work with research based groups in forestry and nature conservation, to improve research and enhance environmental sustainability to protect and empower the poor. Josephine has a passion to give back to society and her priority is to honour all the support and help she has received so far by becoming a renowned researcher and conservation activist as well as to start a non-profit organization that will offer support to young girls.