Ohio University will honor one of Africa's fastest women runners as a heroine this weekend.
The OU African Student Union is honoring Rose Chepyator-Thomson for her athletic accomplishments, in combination with her sports-related scholarly achievements while raising a family.
Chepyator-Thomson, a professor at the University of Georgia, has participated in world sports events such as the Commonwealth Games, said Peter Otiato, OU's African Student Union president.
Chepyator-Thomson is an 11-time track and cross country All-American at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was once considered Africa's fastest woman in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter races, according to a Georgia Magazine article titled, The Front of the Pack. Georgia Magazine is produced by the University of Georgia.
Chepyator-Thomson will be the first woman to be honored by the union, Otiato said.
She is one of the many unsung heroines in Africa. She has excelled in athletics and academics and at the same time brought up her family
he said. She is a shining light to those of us who wish to make a difference for the continent.
She also will be the keynote speaker in a two-day symposium about African children, titled Sports Youth and Africa.
The symposium will bring together scholars and students from several universities in Africa and the United States to discuss the place of sports in promoting the plight of the African child, said Nana Kwaku Owusu-Kwarteng, assistant director of the Institute for the African Child.
He said 26 presentations will be made during the event.
OU's Institute for the African Child organized the symposium and is an affiliate of the African Studies Program of OU's Center of International Affairs.
The sports theme in the symposium arose out of conversations among students and faculty members in the African Studies Program, Owusu-Kwarteng said.
In line with our interdisciplinary effort and our earnest dedication towards bettering the living standards of the African child we at the Institute for the African Child have decided to take this a notch higher by organizing the symposium
he said.
OU's Institute for the African Child was founded in 1998 by Dr. Steve Howard, its current director, and involves various OU colleges, such as the Colleges of Communication, Education, Health and Human Services, Arts and Sciences and Osteopathic Medicine, in a collaborative effort to address the needs of the African child, Owusu-Kwarteng said.
The institute was created as a collaborative effort to promote research, teaching and services that focus on the process of the
African continent's socio-economic development, according to the institute's Web site, www.ohiou.edu/afrchild/Index.htm
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