Photo By Senior Airman Morgan St Marks | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ernest Frimpong, 92nd Air Refueling Wing noncommissioned...... read more read more
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Their contagious laughter drowns out the sounds of their quick footsteps, walking towards their professor’s office. An event that happens every Friday, their weekly tradition for this group of friends. They use this time after class to converse about how their week went, discuss upcoming plans and take the opportunity to check their emails using the computer in the professor’s office.
It was an ordinary Friday afternoon in Ghana for Ernest Frimpong, now a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant and the 92nd Air Refueling Wing noncommissioned officer in charge of command protocol, but one email changed the course of his life.
“You Won the Green Card Lottery” the email subject read. Quickly opening the email, Frimpong discovered he had been randomly selected for the Diversity Visa Lottery.
“I showed the email to all of my friends, and we all believed it was a scam,” Frimpong explained. “Like there was no way this was real. We knew about the DV Lottery, but it was one of those programs where we had never heard of anyone actually getting selected, so we didn’t think it was real.”
Frimpong forwarded the email to his family, including his sister and his grandpa. Then he learned that his grandpa had applied to the lottery for him, his sister and their cousin.
Months before receiving the acceptance email, his grandpa reached out to Frimpong for his passport photo. Since Frimpong was busy with his college courses, he sent the passport photo without questioning the request.
“When I told my family that I won, we were all unsure what to do,” Frimpong recalled. “I was the only one in my family who was selected. My grandpa only went through the application process for us to find out if the program was real.”
Frimpong admitted he didn't believe his acceptance into the program was real, despite providing the required documentation. He revealed that it wasn’t until he went to the U.S. Embassy and paid the visa fee that he realized he was moving to the United States.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Diversity Visa Lottery, is a United States Government program created through the Immigration Act of 1990. The annual lottery system aims to diversify the immigrant population in the U.S. The visas provided under this program are available to countries that have had less than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the last five years.
To participate in the program, applicants must meet certain eligibility requirements. These include being a native of a qualifying country and having at least two years of work experience within the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training.
“I attended a public boarding high school in Ghana, so I was used to not seeing my family for extended periods,” Frimpong explained. “But coming to America was different because I wasn’t going to be a bus ride away from them.”
In June 2009, Frimpong graduated from Kumasi Polytechnic, now known as Kumasi Technical University, with a diploma in electrical engineering, but never attended his graduation. Instead, he spent his remaining time in Ghana with his family and friends, while packing up his life for the next adventure. Three months later, Frimpong was on his first flight heading to America.
During his first year in the U.S., Frimpong lived with his grandfather working at a shelter for veterans while volunteering at the local veteran’s hospital observing and aiding therapists with patients.
After a year of working and volunteering, Frimpong began his pursuit of higher education at Cañada College. Despite his demanding evening job as a security guard during his time at community college, Frimpong found himself drawn towards science.
“While working at Gilead Sciences [a pharmaceutical company], I was exposed to a lot of science, and I was constantly talking with the scientists during my shift,” Frimpong said. “That job specifically, and parts of my previous ones, influenced my first major because I learned about and fell in love with biomedical engineering.”
In pursuit of his new passion, Frimpong applied to San Francisco State University’s Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program Directed Research internship. During his first internship, Frimpong gained hands-on experience in a research environment where he identified proteins using fluorescent dye and worked on zebra fish and fission yeast as experimental model organisms.
Frimpong’s love for the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field only grew, resulting in completing three internships in three consecutive years, ending with an internship for NASA’s Computing and Information for Public and Applied Research program. The CIPAIR program aims to increase the participation of underrepresented minority groups in fields of computing and information science.
Frimpong explained during his internship at the NASA biomedical engineering lab, he and other students designed and implemented an electromyography sensor on their own biceps that would control a robotic car.
“My mind is good at understanding engineering and connecting it with biology is fun,” stated Frimpong. “Just the curiosity of healthcare, doing the research to solve a problem. Something like kidney problems, learning how to regenerate a kidney using stem cells so nobody has to donate that organ anymore.”
In search of a higher education to continue learning about biomedical engineering, Frimpong applied and was accepted to both California Polytechnic State University and University of California, Davis. However, Frimpong and his wife had recently welcomed a baby girl into their lives.
“It wasn’t the right time to become a full-time student again,” Frimpong began. “Not when my wife had moved to the U.S. the year prior, and our daughter was just born. I would have had to go to school during the day and work at night again to support my family, and I didn’t want to be away from them all day.”
After considering all his educational options, none of them seemed quite right. Until one of Frimpong’s friends suggested he speak with a recruiter about joining the military.
Frimpong researched each branch, focusing on their education benefits. Ultimately, Frimpong decided that the United States Air Force was the best fit for him and his family.
“I graduated from Cañada in 2015 and joined the Air Force in August that summer,” said Frimpong. “The Air Force had recently raised their age limit two years prior, which was perfect timing. If they hadn’t raised the age, I wouldn’t have been able to join.”
Even though his grandpa was very supportive of Frimpong’s decision to join the military, he had one request: for Frimpong to get his degree. Frimpong explained that his grandpa wanted to ensure that he would still be successful in the U.S.
Expectedly, Frimpong joined the Air Force as an engineering assistant. Throughout his eight years in engineering, he worked in each section in subordinate and leadership roles.
Still actively seeking schooling, Frimpong struggled to find a college where he could continue his engineering passions in an online format. Eventually, he met an Airman during a TDY who was about to graduate with an engineering degree they completed online.
“This Airman I met started telling me how he was about to graduate with his engineering degree, and I didn’t understand how,” Frimpong recalled. “He told me to look up the University of North Dakota’s engineering programs. I immediately went back to my hotel room, researched the college and applied that day. I received my acceptance letter and started my first class in September 2019.”
He graduated from the University of North Dakota with a degree in petroleum engineering in August 2024.
Despite loving his career in engineering, Frimpong wanted to step out of his comfort zone to gain a new perspective. The noncommissioned officer in charge of command protocol became available and Frimpong took the chance and applied.
“I have gained so much knowledge from all my experiences living in America,” Frimpong exclaimed. “From working for a shelter home, learning the unique stories of each individual, to having a background in engineering and understanding how design, research & development works and finally being in protocol where you learn the perspective of leadership. My wife and I look forward to relocating back to Ghana someday and taking back with us the experiences and knowledge gained from the US.”
Frimpong is passionate about engineering and healthcare. He enjoys seeing people getting the care that they need. When the time is right, and Frimpong decides to hang up the uniform, his family will return to Ghana with a new perspective on how life can look.
Frimpong expressed how his experiences in the United States exposed him to a different version of the doctor-patient relationship, which he hopes to one day incorporate in Ghana.
“It was an easy decision for me to join the military and give back to the country that has given me so much,” said Frimpong. “If or when I separate or retire, I’ll feel good about my service because this was my way to say ‘thank you.’”
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2024 15:48 |
| Story ID: | 482765 |
| Location: | FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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