Ashesi University has a rigorous curriculum from theory to practice encouraging students to solve real life problems in their communities. With faculty research interests matched to the SDGs and the AU Agenda 2063 priority areas, students are exposed to the diversity of challenges and encouraged to use pluralistic and systems thinking to understand and attempt to solve.

The First Year Experience at Ashesi introduces all first-year students, irrespective of their majors, to transdisciplinary content and multiple ways of thinking preparing them for their undergraduate education. All courses in this experience _ design thinking, data visualization, introduction to computing _ to name a few urge students to use critical thinking skills to analyze, deconstruct, and understand complex problems within their local and global communities framed in the African Union (AU) Development Goals (matched to the SDGs). At the end of the program, students work in teams to construct the many possibilities of the best solutions to their community’s problem.

In their Sophomore and/or Junior year, students have the opportunity to enroll in the Creative and Research Internship Non-major Elective (CARINE). With some supervision from faculty, the CARINE course allows students to explore creative, research and entrepreneurial topics that are of interest to them. A donor funds the course, and students are encouraged to create solutions that impact communities on and beyond the continent. See a brochure for CARINE here for more information and student testimonials.

A critical component of Ashesi’s graduation requirements, is a minimum 40-hour leadership service learning project of the student’s choice. The Leadership IV Seminar is a capstone to the 4-part leadership seminar series where students put into practice many of the leadership concepts learned in the previous seminars as well as courses taken at Ashesi. Service learning impact spans health, sanitation, renewable energy, poverty, etc. Every Ashesi student leaves a legacy for improvement in a community as proof of their learning. See a database of previous Leadership IV service learning projects here (check the ‘Service Learning’ sheet).