A former Dean of the School of Physical Sciences, Prof. Samuel Yeboah Mensah, has called on students to strive to become leaders capable of providing solutions to problems facing the current generation.

Prof. Yeboah Mensah made the call at the launching of the UCC @50 Student Representative Council (SRC)Week Celebration at the SRC Hostel Conference Hall. The celebration is under the theme “Overcoming Challenges of Global Leadership; the Role of Emerging Leaders.”

Prof. Yeboah Mensah who is also the Co-ordinator of the Laser and Fibre Optics Centre observed that “The world is lacking leaders with global philosophy that can transform the lives of people.” He noted that the crisis in global leadership had contributed to the soaring of youth unemployment and low standard of living of people in most part of the world. He made reference to the upheavals in the Arab world and attributed it to the failure on the part of their leaders.

He commended the SRC for being the first to put up the State-of-the-Art Hostel Complex in the country.

Delivering the keynote address, a former Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education and an alumnus of UCC, admonished student leaders to consider the views of their colleagues in decision making. He added that “Leadership is a discipline, therefore you must learn to become a good leader,” stressing that “To be successful in life one has to use the power of the mind to create conditions which promote the achievement of desired outcomes.”

The SRC Secretary, Mr. Kwasi Addai Mununkum Otchere, indicated that programmes for the 2011/2012 week celebrations unlike the previous ones had been planned to commemorate the Golden Jubilee Anniversary of UCC. Some of the highlights of the celebration include: public lectures, quiz competitions, entertainment shows, religious. He pointed out the celebration would be climaxed with the “Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award” ceremony to honour students who had excelled in academic and in other fields.  

 Later the SRC donated 25 pieces of mattress and food items to the Ankaful Leprosarium as part of their social responsibility to the needy and vulnerable in society.

Present at the function were a section of senior members and corporate organisations.