The 1997 year group of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) yesterday presented items and cash worth GH₵7,500 to their alma mater for its 60th anniversary celebration.
The items included exercise books, pencils, pens, note pads and GH₵2,500 to facilitate teaching and learning.
Presenting the items on behalf of the group, at the institute’s premises in Accra, the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of Volta River Authority (VRA), Mr Sam Kwesi Fletcher, explained that the school over the years had helped to unearth talents of students, hence the gesture.
He said the donation was done to encourage management of the institute to continue to grow its programmes to keep up with the needs of industry and society as a whole.
Mr Fletcher promised the group’s commitment to donate more in the future to make the school set a legacy that the next generation would boast off.
“I know the school is growing, during our time it was only diploma but now masters’ course is introduced, we want GIJ to continue to expand its territories and train professionals in and across the country,” he added.
Dr Lawrencia Agyepong, Chair of the 60th Anniversary Committee and Head of Department of Communication of the school, who received the items and cash, thanked the group for remembering their alma mater.
“They have shown that they appreciate the role the institute played in their lives and we hope that other alumni groups will learn from this and show the same kind of appreciation,” she said.
Elaborating on the theme for the celebration, “GIJ: Celebrating Our Past, Inspiring Our Future,” Dr Agyepong noted that it was the stories of the alumni groups that the school was celebrating to inspire other students and youth to enrol in the school.
She underscored the need for the past students to mentor the new ones, that she said would help them to understand what it takes to work in the industry and also encourage them to be successful.
Dr Agyepong expressed the institute’s readiness to put in place measures to ensure that its curriculum inculcated professionalism in its graduates.
“We are inspired to keep growing our programmes, deepening the development relevance of our curriculum and sharpening skills development for higher professional competence of our graduates,” she stated.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
