A young African man named Shadrack Frimpong has been awarded an Honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London and won the United States President’s $150,000 prize after going through a very poor upbringing as a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 in Africa.
Shadrack Frimpong is a Ghanaian man who is currently a PhD student in Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge and a beneficiary of Cambridge Gates Scholarship. He was awarded the Honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London based on his work as a social entrepreneur.
Frimpong is the founder and CEO of Cocoa360, an organisation that transform lives, particularly farming communities together with funding health programs in Ghana.
The Royal Holloway University Management said they awarded him because of how he is using his organisation to facilitate communities to develop, enable subsidized healthcare and provide free education to young women which serves as an inspiration to their students.
Frimpong said he had a rough path growing up withh a very poor family but he defied numerous odds to succeed. He mentioned that he was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 a peasant farmer and charcoal seller in the cocoa-farming village of Tarkwa n Ghana’s Western Region.
He was able to enroll in High school with the help of a Ghana Cocoa Board scholarship. He earned his high school diploma at Opoku Ware School in Kumasi, Ghana before proceeding to University of Pennsylvania, United States where he bagged a bachelors degree.
He bagged his bachelors degree in Biology form the University of Pennsylvania as a flagbearer, university scholar, and the first-ever Black student to be awarded the prestigious $150,000 President’s Prize.