Commencement 2009: URI student aims for career as nursing professor in her native Ghana

Commencement 2009 Student Profile of Talent Development Alumna Martha Ofeibea-Tenkorang.

As a teenager, Martha Ofeibea-Tenkorang moved with her father and sister from Ghana to Pawtucket to rejoin her mother, who had emigrated to Rhode Island 10 years previously to continue her nursing career. As she prepares to graduate from the University of Rhode Island on May 17 with a degree in nursing, she is a giant step closer to achieving her own dream of becoming a nursing professor.

“I lived in the city in Ghana, which is not much different from the cities here, but there are a lot more opportunities here and we can achieve so much more here,” she said.

While Ofeibea-Tenkorang’s mother and older sister, Joanna, are both nurses and her younger sister, Nana, is a URI pre-med student, her desire to become a nurse stems more from the time she spent caring for her elderly grandmother and the belief that it would be a valuable subject to teach.