Letter from a future immunologist to her young self. By Hephzi Angela Tagoe.
Hephzi Angela Tagoe is a Ph.D. candidate at the Blizard Institute at Queen Mary University of London, specializing in the mechanisms that lead to scaling in skin disease. She is also an award winning science communicator, the co-founder of GhScientific and of HANAT Educational Services. She holds a degree in Biomedical Science and a masters in Pharmaceutical Science with management studies and experience working across biotech, manufacturing and the pharmaceutical industry. Read more about her here. Follow her @hanat_akordor
Dear Naa Ameley,
I am super excited to be writing to you as you prepare to leave home for secondary school. It was 20 years ago when I made this journey. I remember how I felt when I — you — made our first trip up to Cape Coast, full of joy and ready for the new experience.
I was so confident in myself…that I had actually been complacent…I was an excellent student and one of two girls who made all 1’s in our Basic Education Certificate Examination.
Holy Child School will be your home for the next 3 years and it is important that you let the school pass through you as my headmistress use to drill into us: “Don’t just pass through the school, let the school pass through you”
To a large extent, your time at Holy Child will be your first lesson in self-discovery. You will discover your strengths and weaknesses. You will face challenges and you will experience victories. You will learn to be a lady of substance in your gestures and in your speech. You will be among a tribe of girls as beautiful and talented as yourself and you will sow seeds of lifetime friendships.
I was so confident in myself when I arrived on Angels Hill as Holy Child was known until my experiences taught me that I had actually been complacent. As you know, at junior high school, I was an excellent student and one of two girls who made all 1’s in our Basic Education Certificate Examination. I was used to hearing my name multiple times at speech and prize giving days. I was even more pleased when my name was top of the selection list when I first visited Holy Child after results day.
It wasn’t long before Holy Child humbled me. I didn’t even make the reserve team for the national science and math quiz. I came 4th in the Miss African Intellectual contest. I soon realised that there is always room for improvement. After 3 years of self-improvement, I came away from Holy Child School ready to always be the best version of myself.
This is what I pray for you as you embark on your own journey away from home and form new memories with your tribe of girls. Be free, be confident, form the right relationships and make the most of your experiences. I am looking forward to seeing the woman of excellence you will become. Mummy will often speak of how quiet home is without your noisy bubbly self and you will look forward to the ride home on vacations just as much as the ride back to the boarding house. Don’t forget that Mummy, daddy and your brothers will always be there to support and encourage you.
Off you go now on your journey of self-discovery. Enjoy the experience!
Love always,
Hephzi Angela
Learn more about Hephzi’s career here and her support of women in STEM here.
Representation Matters is a collaborative project between The Exploratory, African Women in Science and Engineering, Levers in Heels, and is supported in part by a Diversity in Science grant from The Biochemical Society.
