DASNR
International
Student of the Week

Home Country:
Mali

In Assa words, more about Mali "Mali is a Sahelian country, located in West Africa. Mali is a big country with 1, 241, 238 square km and a population of 11.22 millions people. Oxfam estimates (1997) that 53 percent of children age 6-11 will enrol in school by 2015. The illiteracy rate was 61.8 percent in 2000. Public expenditure on education in 1997 was 2.2 percent of Gross National Product (GNP). In the mid 1990s, it was estimated that 72.8 percent of the population lived on less than US$1 per day and over 90 percent lived on less than US$ 2 per day. The minimum wage for Malian workers was US$ 459 per annum in 1995-1999. Since the workforce is largely informal or engaged in subsistence agriculture, however, minimum wage number has little relevance. The distribution of wealth in Mali is highly unequal and 10 percent of the population owns 56.2 percent of the wealth.

Actually we Malians are among the material–resource poorest countries in the world but we are culturally wealthy. Mali has many diverse cultures and there is evidence of this in that the 23 tribes of the Mali have a high degree of self-knowledge, mutual respect, developed languages, and openness to foreigners. Mali is country that identifies itself by its political stability, democracy, musical diversity, and cultural intactness. These characteristic are among our most important identifying features. I share many of these cultural characteristics with my people. My vocation is to help contribute to the socio-economic development in my country and especially women whose conditions are not very desirable now. I will talk extensively about my contribution plan for women later in this document."

Assa Kante
October 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Department of Agricultural Education, Communication, and Leadership...

This week’s international student of the week is Assa Kante. She is a Ph.D student in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communication, and Leadership. Assa is from Mali, a West African country. She speaks three languages, Bambara (the most spoken language in Mali), French (official language) and English.

Assa is a very active professional woman from Mali. She has a Baccalaureate degree in Biological Sciences and B.Sc. in Agriculture. She has a Masters in Food Science and Technology from Texas A&M. After that, Assa became interested in Education so she earned a postgraduate degree in Training Engineering (Diplome d’Etudes Superieures Specialisees in Ingenierie de la Formation) in Mali. Right after she obtained a Masters in Agricultural Education/Extension from Montana State University.

Assa is member of:

  • AWLAE (African Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment) this organization's aim is to empower African women to take their education back to their homes and use it in a manner that teaches others to improve their livelihood.
  • AVAL (Action de Valorisation des Savoir-Faire Locaux en Afrique de l'Ouest) is an organization that works with countries that are willing to mutually share their ancestral and current knowledge with each other.
  • AFIMA (Association des Femmes Ingenieurs du Mali). In this association Assa works with Malian women to try to help each other in terms of capacity building and being a role model for future female generations in scientific and technical education. AFIMA promotes and motivates younger female generations to become better educated, involved, and active in science and technology.

 

Assa came to the USA because she believes that education here is serious and at the top of the world. Mastering English on the top of French was another incentive to come to the USA. Assa knew about OSU through a friend who is an OSU alumnus. Assa participated in a short training program in summer 2007 at OSU.

Assa comes from an extended family. She is married to a helpful and respectful man who has had a big influence in Assa's social life and encouraged her to have both professional and family life. Assa's oldest daughter has been studying in Houston since 2002. Her husband is in Africa.

In her free time Assa is always at home either cooking or decorating. She also likes to give support to people who are in great need; therefore, she likes to organize family and network events.

Assa's future plans are to complete her Ph.D to go back to Mali and work for the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), the national agricultural research institute of Mali as a Manager of Training, she also will work as Leader of Outreach and Marketing for the Agri-Business Incubator Center, a new agribusiness incubator that will be launched at IER. The Agribusiness Center is a Mali-style “Entrepreneurial Incubator” and will provide opportunities, processes and resources that will facilitate the entry of new farmers and farm businesses into the agricultural community in Mali. Customers in this agribusiness incubator will be primarily current and prospective farmers as well as unemployed recent university graduates in engineering and agricultural sciences.

She strongly believes that her education would lead to many changes:

  • To make progress in my professional career plan
  • To maintain and develop competencies and to adapt them to my roles at IER and with the Agri-business Incubator Center
  • To enhance the viability and sustainability of Malian agriculture, particularly to add economic value to rural women’s activities
  • To be able to contribute to decision-making regarding curriculum development at the university level, particularly in their continuing education program
  • To teach some courses in agricultural education (extension option), develop short courses in leadership training and cooperatives business management.
  • To establish an intensive network with our collaborators (educators, extension specialists, and agricultural producers) in the target research fields. One of the outcomes of my training will be to strengthen our collaboration with IPR/IFRA ( Institute of Rural Polytechnic/ Applied Education Research), part of the University of Bamako similar to a college of agriculture in a U.S. Land Grant University. The goal of establishing this intensive network of collaborators is to enable IPR/IFRA students and other university students at the end of their training to be employed in research or to have skills to develop their own agro-enterprises.
  • To help the rural women and professionals in the field of agricultural education. I especially wish to become a model coach and mentor for young women who have the capability or who have already earned university degrees in Mali and also neighbouring countries with which we are networking.

 

Advisor: Dr. Edwards Craig

 

Interview by: Sandra Rodríguez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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