UCCTalks.com's Shepherd Morttey Yaw [Efo Shepherd Pidho], caught up with Esi Donrinda before she was sworn into office as SRC Secretary. They spoke about Campaigning and Relationship, Academics, Social Media and the SRC. Read the first part of the interview below.
ESI: ESI
Donrinda
UT: UCCTalks.com
UT: Good afternoon ESI, and congratulations on your election as UCC SRC Secretary.
ESI. Good afternoon and thank you very
much.
UT: Could you tell us what you think
people should know about you?
ESI: Basically, ESI Donrinda is a level 300 student
pursuing a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Social Sciences with combinations of Economics and Mathematics and a
proud affiliate of Kwame Nkrumah Hall. I am driven by the passion to make
positive impact, love to be myself, have fun and listen to the needs of people.
UT: Can you tell us about your life before
tertiary education, did you have the passion for leadership or it is something
you discovered when you got to the university?
ESI: Well, right from primary school I
loved to be the one who would bear the burden of others; that is to make the
needs of other people my concern. I began student activism at the Junior High
School when I occupied the office of Assistant School Prefect and also I
steered the vetting committee and took up some leadership positions at church.
I focused more on activities outside school where I got into Scouting and
became part of a group that brings together young people from all parts of the
world to come up with ways of advancing our world. This gave me a lot of
experience as far as leadership is concerned.
UT: How do you see student activism?
ESI: My idea of student activism changed
after the elections. I have realized that student activism goes beyond just a
matter of the portfolio you contest for but has to do with having a listening
ear and being able to go down to the level of other people and knowing their
needs. A student leader is expected to have the ability to communicate and
negotiate for the needs of students.
UT: How would you describe UCC to someone
outside, having been here for about three years?
ESI: I wouldn’t say UCC is a perfect place,
but it is unique in its own way. I have always dreamt of coming here and I have
come to admit the fact that UCC is a hallmark of excellence and discipline with
a system that brings out the best in an individual. I believe UCC is the best
when it comes to academic excellence, despite the fact that we lack in some
aspects.
UT: Per our observations on social media
as far as the elections were concerned, we realized that among all the
aspirants, you were the only one who was very active on social media. Do you
think social media played an important part in the elections and how do you
expect the patronage of Social Media in UCC to grow?
ESI: I must admit the fact that we are in
the times where things move faster than you can think of, technology keeps
advancing every day and people are resorting to the use of technology. Gone are
the days when we used to join long queues for registration; we can now sit in
the comfort of our rooms and get that done. The point I am making is that
everybody is getting on social media, so I believe it played a very pertinent role
in my campaign and I would love its patronage to grow to an extent where
everybody would resort to its use; because it would interest you to know that
despite all that was done on social media, you could walk to a room and someone
has not even heard your name, neither is the person certain of the portfolio
you are contesting. While you would have assessed yourself and thought you have
made headway as far as popularity is concerned. So I believe there is more to
be done.
UT: So what is your favorite social media
platform?
ESI: Well, I think my team really made
headway on Facebook. The funny thing was that my official Facebook account got
hacked at the middle of campaigning when we had gotten about three thousand
followers. We did not give up, but started all over again and I believe with persistence,
people got to know about ESI
Donrinda and fell in love with the brand.
UT: We accept the fact that elections
involve a lot, both emotionally and psychological; what has been the impact of
family and friends outside campus in bringing you this far?
ESI: Well, I believe every politician does
expect that a certain level of insults and lies will be thrown at you, so we
brace ourselves for all that. We make sure that our emotions are dead to all
that. But the family and friends are people who know the real you, people who
can get to your emotions, that means their actions and inactions can affect
you. I believe my family and friends were very supportive although they had
their doubts because it did not work out at the hall level, and did not want to
take another risk of me being down. The first thing I did was to let them
believe in me and my agenda. I wrote an official letter to my family declaring
my intentions and giving them another reason to believe in me this time around;
and that worked out and got me their support till the very end.
UT:
If you were supposed to choose one person in your family who was there
for you most of time among the others, who would it be and why?
ESI: Hmmm, It’s really competitive between
my brother and my father; because my
brother was the kind of person I could talk to about anything, unlike my dad,
who wouldn’t always express emotions when told about something; you know
African fathers [with smiles]. However there were times he would be encouraging
me, giving me Bible quotes as late as 12 midnight. Well to make this tough
decision about who was really there for me, I would say it was my dad, even
though my brother will compete with him closely [with laughter].
UT: Alright, back to the elections, we
believe you had your highest number of votes from Kwame Nkrumah Hall and that
was the turning point as far as your victory was concerned, KNH was “the hall
rejected you” when you contested as vice president; what do you think caused
this turn around in the SRC Elections?
ESI: I must say that I would always give a
big ups to Kwame Nkrumah Hall everywhere I go for that turning factor they gave
me. I believe what brought about the rejection the other time was that, I went
in a team and the hall chose the other team over my team. But this time around
I had to go back, do a background check and correct the mistakes. Also I was
contesting as an individual and that was also a game changer. I also believe
that Kwame Nkrumah Hall wouldn’t just endorse a candidate based on the fact
that the person is an affiliate of the hall. I proved myself day in and day out
to be the best for the office. I went round sharing my policies rather than
preaching the fact that I am an affiliate of the hall. This year’s elections
were very competitive and I believe my performance at the vetting after the
results were released also sent a message to the people and that also gave us
the edge despite the fact that we went all out proving ourselves to the worthy
of the portfolio.
[End of Part 1]
The part two of the interview looks at the SRC Executive Council and Esi's Favourite Lecturers as well as some fun she had in Level 100.
Interview was transcribed by Albert Dodoo.
[End of Part 1]
The part two of the interview looks at the SRC Executive Council and Esi's Favourite Lecturers as well as some fun she had in Level 100.
Interview was transcribed by Albert Dodoo.
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