News — School

Ahmed Muhammed is the pride of his family. The 18-year-old will next month be Oakland Technical High School’s first Black male valedictorian in its 106-year history. He has also been accepted into 11 top universities to which he applied including Harvard and Stanford.

“Being named valedictorian is a dream come true,” he said. “I hope that me being class valedictorian inspires others from similar backgrounds to do the same.”

The High School senior scored a cumulative GPA of 4.73 throughout high school with hopes of finishing with a 5.0 GPA in his senior year. Out of the 11 universities he got accepted to, he is likely to choose Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or Columbia, where he will major in engineering, according to San Francisco Chronicle. “It feels amazing,” Muhammad shared. “I’m grateful to be accepted to any single college, but 11 of them? I had never imagined this.”

He has not only excelled academically but has also been doing well on the basketball court for his school’s varsity basketball team.

What’s more, during the pandemic, he founded the non-profit Kits Cubed (now a company), which offers science experiment kits to grade school-aged students. The student entrepreneur founded the nonprofit to discourage young people, particularly those from underserved communities, from thinking that they can’t be scientists.

The teen’s aim is to get his learning kits in the hands of every young scientist in Oakland. He had founded Kits Cubed while babysitting his younger niece and nephew during the pandemic. Muhammad once asked them to work on some science projects, but they refused, saying they were not good at the subject. At that moment, Muhammad decided to use simple science experiments to prove them wrong.

“We went to the store together and I had them pick out potatoes, and then I went to the hardware store to buy some copper nails, some galvanized nails, and some wire and we made a battery out of it,” he told CNN.

Muhammad was able to convince them that they were not bad at science. He then decided to share that with the community. That gave birth to Kits Cubed. With the help of his teachers, Muhammad designed science kits geared toward elementary school students.

Following media reports, scores of organizations and individuals, including former NFL star and Oakland Tech alumnus Marshawn Lynch, contacted Muhammad to offer their support. Then came a partnership with Oakland-based non-profit Seneca Family of Agencies, which provided Muhammad with tools to expand as well as office space.

Today, Kits Cubed is an official company that has also started working in partnership with the National Society of Black Engineers to create a virtual science program for kids. So far, Muhammad has distributed hundreds of his kits to schools around Oakland. The kits are also available for online purchase for $15. Each includes three experiments, hence the name Kits Cubed.

“There’s so much to learn before picking a single path,” he explained to KTVU, adding, “My work at Kits Cubed has also taught me the value of interdisciplinary studies, so I plan on studying concepts such as Public Policy and Urban Studies outside of my intended engineering focus.”

Muhammad and his siblings got all the kind of support they could from their parents to succeed academically. Their parents themselves did not attend college, however.

Muhammad’s father is a retired captain who spent 30 years with the Oakland Fire Department while his mother immigrated from Cambodia. The two started a real estate business together while teaching their children hard work and determination.

His advice to everyone is to never stop dreaming no matter how difficult things may seem.

“My advice is to never stop dreaming, and while in pursuit of your dreams, make sure to implement a foundation in your life that can serve you no matter what it is you want to accomplish,” Oakland Tech’s Class of 2021 valedictorian shared, adding, “Dreams are powerful and dynamic, and by having a foundation of good habits, you’ll be able to achieve your wildest dreams even as they, and you, change.”

A young 21-year-old Albany native is on a mission to creating the perfect “Man-Making Machine.” King Randall is elevating The “X” for Boys program into a school to give troubled teenage boys a chance at finding their purpose and excelling in life.

In 2019, Randall started The “X” for Boys program at the age of 19 in Albany, Georgia with 20 boys in his home during a summer camp. Through the self-funded program, he taught these boys essential life skills like repairing and maintaining cars, cooking, and how to handle firearms. “Doing different workshops teaching young men how to do different skill trades, we’re also doing a book club and teaching them how to read because 93 percent of the children I come into contact with can’t read,” explained Randall.

The success rate of his book club showed an 86% improvement rate in comprehension skills of the boys aged 1 to 17. Hence, Randall felt it was time to expand his facilities by opening a school that can handle large group intake and change lives.

He is set to transform the former Isabella School into the New Life Preparatory School for Boys, according to WALB News 10. In the school, Randal and his team will provide trade skills such as auto-repair and welding.

Troubled teens have reached out to Randall wanting to take the high road in life. The 21-year-old has helped delinquents stay out of trouble, especially those who need to “escape from undesirable living conditions” and adult life of criminality.

“Giving them space where they’re around a lot of other young men and around other men trying to mold you and train you. I’ve had kids come find me at my house and come knock and ask to join The “X” for Boys. I’ve had kids message me on Instagram, gang members, you name it,” said Randall.

The motto of the school is “Let Us make a man” because Randall believes that it takes a village to groom these young men into responsible men. So for The Life Preparatory School for Boys, he is raising funds from his community and beyond to give these young boys a chance at a better future. “This is what the City of Albany needs! Let’s do this for our boys!
We will Make Men Great Again!” he said on his Facebook page.

A young 21-year-old Albany native is on a mission to creating the perfect “Man-Making Machine.” King Randall is elevating The “X” for Boys program into a school to give troubled teenage boys a chance at finding their purpose and excelling in life.

In 2019, Randall started The “X” for Boys program at the age of 19 in Albany, Georgia with 20 boys in his home during a summer camp. Through the self-funded program, he taught these boys essential life skills like repairing and maintaining cars, cooking, and how to handle firearms. “Doing different workshops teaching young men how to do different skill trades, we’re also doing a book club and teaching them how to read because 93 percent of the children I come into contact with can’t read,” explained Randall.

The success rate of his book club showed an 86% improvement rate in comprehension skills of the boys aged 1 to 17. Hence, Randall felt it was time to expand his facilities by opening a school that can handle large group intake and change lives.

He is set to transform the former Isabella School into the New Life Preparatory School for Boys, according to WALB News 10. In the school, Randal and his team will provide trade skills such as auto-repair and welding.

Troubled teens have reached out to Randall wanting to take the high road in life. The 21-year-old has helped delinquents stay out of trouble, especially those who need to “escape from undesirable living conditions” and adult life of criminality.

“Giving them space where they’re around a lot of other young men and around other men trying to mold you and train you. I’ve had kids come find me at my house and come knock and ask to join The “X” for Boys. I’ve had kids message me on Instagram, gang members, you name it,” said Randall.

The motto of the school is “Let Us make a man” because Randall believes that it takes a village to groom these young men into responsible men. So for The Life Preparatory School for Boys, he is raising funds from his community and beyond to give these young boys a chance at a better future. “This is what the City of Albany needs! Let’s do this for our boys!
We will Make Men Great Again!” he said on his Facebook page.

Achimota School in Ghana, formerly known as Achimota College, was the school where Zimbabwe’s most iconic citizen, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, attended as a student-teacher to attain his certification to be able to work in newly independent Ghana.

But how many times can you say that Mugabe is arguably not even the biggest element in a given context, such as among alumni of a school? This is because Achimota’s alumni include none other than Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe’s hero and an African political icon. Such is the pedigree of the school currently embattled over its refusal to admit to boys with dreadlocks.

The school’s authorities have said that the two students who had been placed there by a computerized placement system according to results from standardized nationwide exams, will not be admitted unless they shave off their hairs. Both sets of parents of the boys who identify as Rastafarians have committed to going to court for an interpretation of their religious liberties.

The alumni association of Achimota has however issued a strongly-worded letter to the current management of the school to stand by its rules and regulations. This alumni association which includes some of Ghana’s most prominent people is thought to be the reason an earlier Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to the school headmistress to admit the boys was reversed.

That suspicion may not be entirely unfounded. As much as Ghana possesses its own competitive Ivy League rankings of senior high schools, Achimota stands above so many due to heritage, and no annual rankings would change that. Alumni of Achimota has been known to channel millions of dollars into running the school, even though it is publicly funded.

The school was established in 1924 as Prince of Wales College and School through the initiative of a colonial governor of the Gold Coast, Gordon Guggisberg, the20th century African educationist James Kwegyir Aggrey and Rev Alec Garden Fraser, an English Anglican priest and schoolteacher.

It has undergone radical changes including renaming and the introduction of mixed-gender learning in its nearly 100 years of existence. In post-independent Ghana, Achimota, along with other schools founded by Christian missionaries prior to independence and right after, became the preferred institutions for bourgeois Ghanaians.

Most of these schools were founded as colleges but became senior high schools. They have continued to represent upper socioeconomic class, taste, and ambitions, meaning that it is common to see members from well-to-do backgrounds in Ghana attend these schools, mostly through alumni privileges. But since the computerized school placement system was introduced in 2005, many more Ghanaians from underprivileged, if not un-esteemed backgrounds are gaining access to schools previously reserved for the affluent and the connected.

Coupled with the introduction of free and compulsory senior high school education, many more Ghanaians are expected to breach what has been an enclave of wealth and power.

Achimota, for one, has produced more than its fair share of Ghana’s powerful people and continues to do so. The school was just one of many missionary-founded and colonial educational institutions established by the 1930s that now are the academies of prestige.

Jerry Rawlings, the former coup leader-turned-president was at Achimota. So were his two vice-presidents, Kow Nkessen Arkaah and John Evans Mills – who later became president. Mugabe was not the only non-Ghanaian former president who was at Achimota – Dawuda Jawara, the first head of state of Gambia, was too.

The father of Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, Edward Akufo-Addo, schooled at Achimota. The older Akufo-Addo was also a president of Ghana. All of this is not counting for more the hundreds with diverse achievements in academia, politics, law, science, finance, and technology.