EYES ON THE PRIZE

IT student from Ghana has relentless focus on certification and career goals

- CALVIN HARPER

Since its inception as a nation in 1787, the United States has been a magnet for people from all over the world, with more than 85 million strivers and seekers arriving just in the last 200 years. The best definition of immigrants I’ve ever heard came from Democratic congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California who described them as people with “enough get-up-and-go to get up and go.”

One of the newest “get up and goers” to arrive in America is 23-year-old Ibrahim Sackey of Ghana. A passionate and ambitious budding technologist, Ibrahim was sponsored by an “auntie” when, back in 2017, he and his mother left their homeland just a few degrees north of the equator to start a new life on the shores of Lake Erie in chilly Cleveland, Ohio.

Like most U.S. newcomers, Ibrahim was quick to appreciate the possibilities of his new country. “The biggest difference between Ghana and the U.S. is that there are so many opportunities here, especially in the tech industry,” he said. “Americans utilize technology everywhere — in healthcare, agriculture, transportation, in all fields — and they do it every day. We don’t have such in Ghana.”

The one thing Ibrahim has yet to grow comfortable with is the wintry Ohio climate. “I enjoy the States very much, but Cleveland gets too cold for me,” he said. “It does not snow in Ghana.”

Coming to the U.S. meant leaving family members behind back in Ghana. Ibrahim has two older sisters and a brother in Ghana and he thinks of them often. “I haven’t been back since I left and I miss my siblings very much,” he said.

Dedicated to his education