In this piece, Salomey Ampadu reflects on a pivotal experience at a Ghanaian children’s home that sparked a gradual yet profound shift from a successful corporate career to a lifelong commitment to education. Through global professional experiences, pandemic-driven introspection, and years of hands-on work in Ghana and London, Salomey recognized the need for deeper leadership and systems knowledge, ultimately leading her to HGSE’s Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship program. Salomey concludes that Harvard did not change her purpose but clarified and strengthened it, equipping her with the confidence and tools to pursue community-rooted, sustainable educational impact.
Salomey Ampadu (she/her)
There is a moment most people who end up at Harvard can point to, a quiet, almost inconvenient realization that the life they were building and the life they were meant to live were not quite the same thing. For me, that moment came not in a boardroom or a lecture hall, but in a children’s home in Ghana, surrounded by kids whose hunger for learning was matched only by the lack of access they had to it.
I wasn’t supposed to be moved by it. I was an Actuarial Science major during my undergraduate studies. Someone who had chosen a career built on numbers, probability, and precision. I was good at it. I liked it, even. But standing in that children’s home during my final year, something shifted quietly, almost imperceptibly, and it never quite shifted back.
The Long Way Around
I didn’t act on that feeling immediately. Instead, I did what seemed logical: I built a career. I pursued my first master’s degree across Dubai and Shanghai, collecting experiences and perspectives that genuinely shaped how I see the world. I joined Bosch and Unilever, learning what it means to execute at speed in high-performing global environments. By most measures, I was thriving.
But there’s a particular kind of restlessness that comes when your work is impressive but not quite yours. On weekends, during holidays, on any spare afternoon I could find, I kept gravitating back toward education. Volunteering, contributing, showing up, not because I had to, but because it was the only time I felt fully like myself. Every time I stepped away from it and back into corporate life, the same question followed me home: Why am I not doing this full-time?
When the World Went Quiet
COVID has a way of forcing honesty. When the noise of a busy professional life finally fell away, I found myself face to face with that question, and this time, I didn’t look away. I made the decision to leave corporate life entirely and step into the education space with both feet. Over the next five years, I worked across Ghana and London, building, learning, and slowly finding my footing in a field I had always loved from a distance.
It was meaningful work. But the more I did it, the more clearly I could see the ceiling not of my ambition, but of my preparation. Scaling impact sustainably requires more than passion. It requires deep fluency in leadership, systems, and organizational design. I knew I needed more.
Harvard and the Art of Leaning In
That recognition is what led me to the Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (ELOE) program at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and being here has been one of the most disorienting and expansive experiences of my life, in the best possible way.
You arrive at HGSE with a clear sense of purpose. And then Harvard quietly, almost casually, reveals a universe of possibilities you didn’t even know to look for. The opportunities are endless, the minds around you are extraordinary, and the temptation to chase everything is very real. What I have come to realize and what I would offer any prospective student considering Harvard is best captured by a quote from a Harvard College student: “Harvard doesn’t push you. You have to lean in.” Over time, I have learned how true this is, and how much meaning and growth come from choosing, repeatedly, to lean in with intention. And the only way to do that without losing yourself is to stay rooted in your why. When your purpose is your anchor, abundance stops feeling overwhelming and becomes fuel.
Walking the Path with Clarity
As I enter my final semester, I am not a different person from the one who walked into that children’s home all those years ago. Harvard has not redirected my path; it has illuminated it, sharpened it, and given me the tools to walk it with far greater intention.
The work ahead, building education initiatives that are thoughtful, sustainable, and deeply rooted in the communities they serve, is the same work I always knew I was meant to do. Harvard just helped me believe it loudly enough to act on it.
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