高级快照：Adwoa Difie Antwi正在成为

When Adwoa Difie Antwi ’21 was deciding where to go to college, she pulled up the websites for each of the schools she had been accepted to on her computer. As she compared her options, clicking back and forth between the sites, she kept returning to wellesley.edu. “It was calling my name,” Antwi said. Thankfully, when her financial aid package arrived from Wellesley, it was the best one of all the schools. It felt like divine intervention. Antwi packed her bags and left her home country of Ghana to begin her college education.

“I have never regretted choosing Wellesley,” Antwi said. “I think it was the best decision I could have ever made.”

Once on campus, Antwi threw herself into Wellesley’s liberal arts mission. She knew she wanted to be pre-med and assumed that meant she would have to major in biology or chemistry, but she soon learned that she could fulfill the pre-med requirements while majoring in something completely unrelated. As she explored other departments, her first-year roommate—another international student, from Chile—suggested she take a course withKellie Carter Jackson,Knafel Assistant Professor of Humanities and assistant professor of Africana studies, called Women and Slavery. “I was like, I’m in love with this course!” Antwi said, laughing.

Through Carter Jackson’s curriculum, Antwi said she learned more about herself as an African woman, about Black women and girls throughout history, and about American slavery. “There were concepts I had never heard of coming from Ghana—things that weren’t taught to us in history there,” she said. “The class was really enlightening for me, and provoked me in different ways than my science classes.” Antwi decided to major in Africana studies while continuing to pursue her pre-med courses: “I found myself shuffling back and forth between the Science Center and Founders. And it was great.”

“If I committed to the journey of doing my best at everything I put my hands in, I knew I would be proud of myself, regardless of the result.”

Adwoa Difie Antwi'21

Antwi also pursued a variety of interests across campus: independent studies with莉莎莉·菲茨帕特里克, visiting lecturer in Africana studies; a public speaking class withLois Roach, senior lecturer in theatre studies; volunteer work; theatre productions; and theHarambee Singers.

安特维将自己在韦尔斯利的经历描述为“整体和谐”，一切都会影响和影响其他一切。例如，安特维注意到，在STEM课程中，她经常是仅有的三四名黑人学生之一。她说：“我的科学课让我对如何融入这个世界有了不同的理解，并真正挑战了我想要生存下去的愿望。”。她致力于上班时间，与教授一对一地会面，并花费无数时间独自学习。但安特维说，正是科学和人文学科的平衡真正帮助她茁壮成长。“我的人文课是以讨论为基础的，”她说。“我们做了更多的阅读和写作，而不是在科学课上学习概念和模型，然后将它们应用到现实生活中。这两个课程都给了我优势：我可以将我的科学应用于人类，我可以将我的人性应用于科学。”

For her Africana studies thesis, Antwi focused on Black girlhood, which is a relatively new academic field. She wanted to make the case for why it was important to study, and to show how Black girlhood influences Black womanhood and vice versa. Using examples from her own life and experiential observations, and citing academics including Toni Morrison, Jennifer L. Morgan, Harriet Jacobs, Ruth Nicole Brown, and Wellesley’s ownLayli MaparyanAntwi深入研究了长期影响黑人女孩的社会因素和刻板印象。

现在，安特维计划采取行动。在上医学院之前，她将在耶鲁大学攻读公共卫生硕士学位（她被录取的11个研究生项目之一）。安特维说：“我的项目是医疗保健管理，但我正在纳入一个关注母婴健康的项目。”。通过专注于公共卫生，她将能够参与她在论文中研究的主题的服务方面，并将其应用于健康问题。她的人文背景让她了解了影响黑人女孩和女性的因素，通过科学，她将帮助她们实现改变。安特维说：“从职业角度来说，我想用心去做。”。

Antwi is goal-driven and future-focused, but at the same time, she made sure to enjoy her time at Wellesley. “Prof. Roach once said to me, ‘Commit to the journey, and I will go with you,’” Antwi said, and she consciously lived by that philosophy every day. “If I committed to the journey of doing my best at everything I put my hands in, I knew I would be proud of myself, regardless of the result,” she said. “However, I could not have made it this far without the unwavering support of my family, teachers, and friends.”