Ghanaian Harvard student who donated $40k scholarship receives 2021 electric car

Verda Annan was awarded $40,000

She receives a Kia Niro vehicle from Steve Harvey

Verda Annan, a Ghanaian student at Harvard University who generously donated her $40,000 scholarship from her High School to the less privileged in her class, has been presented a 2021 Kia Niro SUV vehicle by Steve Harvey.

The vehicle was a gift from the sponsors of the show for her kind gesture towards the less privileged in her class.

Annan was awarded a full scholarship to Havard University but she turned down the offer and requested that it should be given to her mates who would be attending community colleges in the States.

During her graduation, she mounted the podium and expressed her sincere gratitude for the honour bestowed on her, but, she indicated that the scholarship should be given to someone who needed it most.

“I am so very grateful for this, but I also know that I am not the one who needs this the most. And knowing my mom went to Community College and how much that was helpful.

“I would be so very grateful if the administration would consider giving this excellent scholarship to someone who is going to community college because I know it is such a great honour, but I also know I am not the most in need of it,” she said.

Verda Annan noted that, her actions were influenced by principles she picked up from her family, friends and communities in Ghana and America.

“My Assistant Principal gave a speech and it reminded me a lot of the principles and values that I was taught by my mom and my siblings and my community in Ghana, and you know here in America and that I live by.

“And we talk about integrity and doing the right thing and kindness, and all these things that are so right, and I was sitting there, and I knew immediately it was the right thing to do because I had the chance to make a difference in someone else’s life to help somebody else and there was just no excuse at that point,” she told Steve Harvey on the ‘Steve on watch’ show.

Her mother, Rosemary, who was on the show with her said, she was happy for her daughter for taking such a decision because she connected to whatever her daughter was saying when she mounted the podium during her graduation day.

“I have always said to [my children] that, use your discretion when you always have an opportunity to help somebody. Don’t tell the person to go and come tomorrow, if you can do it right away do it; so, I was so proud she didn’t have to come and ask or discuss, she just did what she had to do at the right time,” she said.

Verda Annan aspires to be a health expert.