Winner of the Study a Master's in Europe Scholarship 2023 by educations.com

Meet Rhoda Boadu, the winner of the Study a Master’s in Europe Scholarship 2023!

Rhoda Boadu is the winner of the Study a Master’s in Europe Scholarship 2023 by educations.com.

Rhoda has been awarded €5,000 towards her tuition for the SUSFOODS MSc Sustainable Food Systems at Università Cattolica del Sacro Curoe (Italy), the University of Ghent (Belgium), and Isara (France).

Rhoda’s Background

Rhoda grew up in a family that advocated against food waste, and it saddened her to see her favorite fruits and vegetables perishing at the local market because they could not be stored long enough or properly.  Rhoda is creative and inquisitive and she wondered if there were ways to avoid this waste.  Her curiosity led her to realize that post-harvest activities had a huge impact on the preservation and shelf-life of agricultural products.  She was inspired to complete an undergraduate degree in Post Harvest Technology.

During her Bachelor's of Science program, Rhoda had the opportunity to complete an undergraduate internship in the northern part of Ghana, where she saw how local women preserved food and prolonged the shelf life of products. Rhoda visited the remote areas of Nyankpala and Worebogu-Kukuo, where indigenous women turned underutilized and often ignored parts of crops - like yam peels and bean leaves - into delicious delicacies. Rhoda was inspired to try some of the methods at home and saw the potential for innovative and ethical food production from Ghana’s underutilized crops.

After graduation, Rhoda entered the quality assurance sector because she understood vital role of 'quality assurance and quality control to the product innovation and development process.' Rhoda plans to use the skills and knowledge of industry standards she gained in quality control to help her develop sustainable food products and process.

How Rhoda chose her country of study

The SUSFOODS MSc program is hosted by institutions in three countries – Italy, France, and Belgium – and for Rhoda, this was ideal.  She sees this unique master’s degree as an opportunity to explore and learn from three great food cultures and to use her creativity to delve deeper into alternative and traditional ways of preserving food.  Rhoda is also inspired by the countries’ commitment to sustainable innovation and is interested in learning more about the systems each country uses to minimize food waste.

How Rhoda plans to become a globally-minded leader

For Rhoda, sustainable food waste and food loss are two of the biggest challenges to achieving the world's sustainable development goals. Specifically, Rhoda understands that tackling food waste and loss can make a positive impact on achieving goals 1, 2, and 13 (no poverty, zero hunger, and climate action). To achieve these goals, Rhoda intends to become a key industry player in food production and product development, utilizing her knowledge and skills to develop sustainable, climate-friendly, and economically-viable means of preserving and producing food. 

Rhoda sees that Ghana has a great resource in its agriculture system that is often underutilized and the SUSFOODS MSc is Rhoda’s first step towards bringing environmentally and ethically sound food production and preservation methods to Ghana’s food industry. Rhoda hopes to design products and processes that will allow her to advance Ghana’s agricultural industry and bring it to the forefront of African food production. In the future, Rhoda's 'work will aim at ensuring and encouraging sustainability in food innovation and product design and improving the lives of all the people along the food supply chain.'