{"id":20007,"date":"2014-04-25T16:58:08","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=20007"},"modified":"2014-05-09T09:34:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T13:34:01","slug":"joshua-mensah-emerges-as-strong-communicator-innovator-fulfilling-hopes-of-his-nobel-winning-mother-in-his-own-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/joshua-mensah-emerges-as-strong-communicator-innovator-fulfilling-hopes-of-his-nobel-winning-mother-in-his-own-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Mensah emerges as strong communicator, innovator, fulfilling hopes of his Nobel-winning mother in his own way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Mensah landed at Eastern Mennonite University because his Nobel prize-winning mother, Leymah Gbowee<\/a>, wanted him to go to a Christian college that emphasizes community and peacebuilding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from an African culture, your parents are in charge,\u201d says Mensah. \u201cYou may have an opinion, but they have the final say. They know what\u2019s best for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A digital media major<\/a>, Mensah received his bachelor’s degree from EMU on April 27. His mother, a 2007 MA graduate of EMU who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, was the commencement<\/a> speaker.<\/p>\n

When he first saw the small quiet campus, Mensah had doubts about his mother\u2019s choice. \u201cI\u2019ve always lived in cities. I envisioned a larger place. My first impression was \u2013 \u2018What is this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah\u2019s family is currently centered in New York City. He takes annual trips to Ghana and Liberia to reconnect with extended family and \u201crefresh my culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

He readily identifies with \u201cthird culture kids<\/a>\u201d raised in multiple countries and cultural settings. \u201cI notice things, subtle differences that others might miss. I describe myself as an introvert-extrovert. I get energy from people, but I like thinking, collecting ideas, analyzing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah hopes to return to Africa to share what he\u2019s learned with his generation of budding artists after completing his cross-cultural requirement at EMU\u2019s Washington Community Scholars Center<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be an entrepreneur, do business after college. I feel like I have the right ideas,\u201d says Mensah. \u201cI want to take this newfound love for media, visual communications, and apply it back to Liberia and Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring, for example, Mensah was part of a group of student videographers who produced “To Wisconsin With Love: Offerings on Water, Land and Culture<\/a>,” a documentary that linked a chemical spill in West Virginia\u2019s Elk River in early 2014 to pollution feared from a proposed 4.5-mile open-pit iron mine in Wisconsin\u2019s Penokee Hills.<\/p>\n

Mensah says he wants to \u201cre-teach, share what I\u2019ve learned at EMU and not just make money off of it\u201d by opening a photo studio and offering classes \u201cas a way to bring young people into this line of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah\u2019s artistic skills were apparent at a young age. In high school he began hand-painting designs onto white t-shirts. He now has a line of international urban clothing which he sells through www.thedublifeco.com<\/a>\/.<\/p>\n

The street word \u201cdub\u201d is the brand name Mensah chose for his business venture. \u201cIt can mean a number of things. It could mean twenty, it could mean to win, as in \u2018we got the W.\u2019 Dub means a re-mixed Jamaican song. I think it\u2019s a special word. I took that word and I put another meaning to it. And it still means we are winning, we are champions. We\u2019re pushing something good.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his junior year in the only business class he took at EMU, Mensah parlayed his idea for an app to a second-place finish in a business plan<\/a> weekend at James Madison University. He convincingly communicated the concept for his event finder and planner app, which he named \u201cVite-us,\u201d to the win the \u201csilver medal\u201d among 24 competitors. He also won a business plan competition among students taught by EMU business professor Tony Smith.<\/p>\n

Mensah\u2019s multiple talents were on display in the music video<\/a> he created for his senior show in early April, an original song \u201cBeauty\u201d to celebrate the life of a high school friend who died earlier this year in Ghana.<\/p>\n

Combining original lyrics, collaborative music by a high school friend and a kaleidoscopic montage of double-exposure video, Mensah\u2019s capstone project showcased his visual and musical abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat pushed me to make this project \u2013 I\u2019d hear people say, \u2018Oh, your friend was so beautiful.\u2019 I felt like they didn\u2019t know how beautiful she really was. They only saw the physical beauty,\u201d says Mensah.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and your people,\u201d is the Lupita Nyong\u2019o quote he chose for the opening lines.<\/p>\n

Gbowee\u2019s advice to her son during his college years? \u201cWork hard\u2026and focus. Focus, that\u2019s the one word I try to remember,\u201d says Mensah.<\/p>\n

Focus\u2026 and a strong dose of optimism and wonder. \u201cLife is so crazy. God is so mysterious. He\u2019s wonderful,\u201d says Mensah. \u201cWhen I think about how my life is unfolding, it\u2019s motivation to keep moving forward, to think positive for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Mensah landed at Eastern Mennonite University because his Nobel prize-winning mother, Leymah Gbowee, wanted him to go to a Christian college that emphasizes community and peacebuilding. \u201cComing from an ... read more about Joshua Mensah emerges as strong communicator, innovator, fulfilling hopes of his Nobel-winning mother in his own way<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":20014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,5583,4513,14139,5730,12507],"tags":[5854,14107,10067,5690,11912,14268],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-20007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-campus-community","category-student-life","category-student-profiles","category-undergraduate-programs","category-vaca","tag-commencement","tag-joshua-mensah","tag-leymah-gbowee","tag-peacebuilding","tag-third-culture-kids","tag-washington-community-scholars-center"],"yoast_head":"\nJoshua Mensah emerges as strong communicator, innovator, fulfilling hopes of his Nobel-winning mother in his own way - 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