A Student's Perspective

STARS CONFERENCE has been very exciting. The first day at the conference was fun. The day I arrived I met a lot of people from different places and different schools. Honestly, I had not heard the names of schools before but the conference allowed me to know more schools. I met people with different cultures and with different beliefs. It was just fun

The first day, we lodged in our assigned dormitories after going through the formalities. I was put in the same room with students from the Brong-Ahafo region, the Northern region and the Upper East region, if I’m correct. To be frank, I always thought that they were weird people but upon understanding their cultures and beliefs, I don’t see them that way again. After dinner, which was very fine, we were allowed to retire to bed. Boys will always be boys, you know. We did chat a lot before realizing that day had finished – we fell asleep without knowing it.

Monday, June 22 2009
The second day at STARS, we woke up very early. I hurried through the morning routine – brushing, bathing, dressing, everything. 7 o’clock was breakfast time. We had oats with milk and bread for breakfast. It was DELICIOUS. After eating, we had an interesting activity. We played the HUMAN KNOT game.


After the HUMAN KNOT game, we had a guest speaker, Mr. Kofi Quao from Barclay's Bank. Surprisingly, the speaker was an old boy from my school. His talk was on leadership and was very interesting and educative. Then there were snacks for everyone which was also very fine. We then made for the conference facility on the campus where we had some leadership scenarios. There was another talk by Prof. Daniel Ohene-Adu. Every group was again assigned to another activity – brainstorming on the qualities of a good leader. That too was very educative.

Another group activity again and we left the conference facility for our dormitory. We had time to prepare for our drama. After dinner, we had our plays acted at 7pm. I acted as the bad teacher who claimed to have been trained in Liverpool. Maybe I’ll be trained there someday but maybe not as a teacher.

Monday was very exhilarating. I made a lot of friends – both boys and girls. Honestly, before the conference I had a bit of a problem mingling with other people I just met but it been easier this time. Thumbs up, STARS CONFERENCE!!!

Tuesday, June 23 2009
I overslept. But thank God I was not late. Breakfast was very enjoyable. The day was HIV/AIDS day. Our first two speakers were Omar Seidu Sanda, the Young and Wise Director, Upper East Region, and PCV Allison Terry. They took us through the facts and myths about the dreadful disease that is HIV/AIDS and Ghana and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We had snacks at 10.30. At 11.00, a woman who was looking so energetic and healthy but was having HIV came to recount her experience and the consequences of her ignorance by the time she contracted the disease.

After we had taken lunch, we made for the conference centre again and it was all about assertiveness and saying no, values and value voting, sexuality and gender issues. Dinner was at 6. I had not eaten ‘waakye’ in the evening before but the conference afforded me the opportunity to do it for the first time. On the schedule was Movie time. During the movies I sat with one of the girls and talked a lot with her – I really liked it.

- Isaac, St. Peter's Senior High School, Eastern Region