Pupils in Berlin last week made history when they voted in a Ghanaian to be their Landesschülersprecherin. Cindy Boateng, a 17 year old from Charlottenburg will hold office for a whole year and will repressent close to half a million pupils in the federal state of Berlin.
Though not related to the other famous Boatengs known in Germany (Jérôme and Kevin-Prince, the football brothers who play for the German and Ghanaian national teams respectively), she’s writing history in her own right in a very different field.
She has been active in school politics for the last 3 years and is currently a member of the Kinder- and Jugendparlament, in the Landes- and Bezirksschulbeirat and in the Migrationsbeirat. Positions that have her constantly interacting with major politicians and key decision makers in Berlin.
In her tenure she hopes to influence change of laws on how minors who seek asylum in Germany are handled and increase their access to education. Another issue she hopes to tackle is the renovation of schools in Berlin, which the regional government seems to give a deaf ear to.
She’s currently planning to take her Abi and eventually study medicine, but before that, she hopes to return to Ghana to perfect her twi skills, a language she learnt at her local church where she also sings in the choir.
Who said kids are leaders of tomorrow? Cindy is a leader NOW. This young lady definitely has her work cut out for her, and we wish her all the best in her endeavours.