Meet Divine Asante
Divine Asante is an aeronautics major who hopes to become a pilot.
Aeronautics Major
It took a 10,000-mile round-trip journey and four years of living in a poor village in Ghana (Africa) to help transform New York native Divine Asante, now a freshman aeronautics major and Oscar Ritchie Scholar, to follow his aspiration to one day be an airline pilot.
At 11, his parents sent him to Ghana to live with his grandparents due to his behavioral problems.
“My parents were kind of tired of me,” Asante said. “So, they decided to take me to Africa because things there are a little stricter compared to things in America. It was a good experience overall. I got to learn more about my culture, and I met some great people and have some great memories. I learned more about myself, and I changed and grew as a person. I became a little more humbled and appreciated things a little more.”
Asante said it was an eye-opening experience for him. Not only was the food and environment quite different (he had experiences with snakes, scorpions and lions), but school was very different in Ghana.
“If you don’t do your homework and you end up turning it in late or not at all, the teachers will whip you,” Asante said. “They take out their cane and they just beat you. It’s crazy. It was a scary experience, especially for someone like me who is not used to that kind of discipline.”
Asante said he came to Kent State because it was affordable and the right distance from his parents' current home in Cincinnati.
Though he struggles, like most freshmen do, with the adjustments to college life (workload, time management, sleep deprivation), Asante said his experience has been fairly good so far. When he’s not studying, he enjoys playing basketball, working out at the rec center, participating in bible studies with NEO Impact and pursuing his passions in art.
“My favorite class so far is psychology because (of) how the human brain works, and human behavior is pretty interesting,” Asante said.
