Speaker 1: hello ladies and gentlemen my name is april and you're welcome back to my youtube channel as you guys can see today i have a guest uh he is one of the most popular persons on the university of ghana campus today i am with a law student a final year law student who is also the world public speaking champion of 2020 and he is also the winner of the ghana law challenge of 2019 which aired on TV3. If you haven't watched it, I mean, go ahead and watch it, please. I think it's on YouTube. Yeah. Yes, it's definitely on YouTube, so you should go and watch it. It's a very fun challenge where law students from six faculties competed. They answered legal questions, you know, things like that. A very interesting challenge. His name is Nana Kweku Apreku Ejapong. So, Apreku, as I like to call you, if that's okay, please tell us, what else are you known for

Speaker 2: on campus? Well, I also won the 2018 edition, novice edition of the Ghana University Debates Championship. I'm the winner of the 2018 SRC Inter-Hall Debates. I'm the best oralist of the 2029 All-African Human Rights Multicultural Competition hosted by the University of Senegal and the University of Pretoria. Finalist of the Pan-African University Debates Championship public speaking and other stuff. There are lots of things, he basically has

Speaker 1: a lot of awards and a lot of medals and trophies, a lot of these things to his name. So that is the reason why Kweku is here today actually because we are talking about combining extracurricular activities with studies and he is a perfect example of someone who is successful in, should I say, both areas? Well, in extracurricular activities, more because... More than in your studies. Well, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. So, Afriko, can you please just tell us a bit about how you were combining studies with extracurricular activities and what advice do you have for people who are interested in going, you know, quite extremely

Speaker 2: to extracurricular activities whilst studying? Well, going extremely may be a problem because you may not have time for your studies particularly if you're when your course is intensive and demanding but you can try because everybody is having a degree nowadays I mean the number of graduates are many but what sets you apart is how you manage your time and what you do with the spare time you have because people or employers want people with persons who can solve problems and solving problems come with comes with experience you can get that experience with extracurricular activities. Personally, I want to speak in court. I want to be an advocate. So, I don't really want to be behind the table. I want to be in front of judges. So, the experience for me would be public speaking. The experience for someone else can be something else. So, yeah. But don't go too much in it.

Speaker 1: It will affect your studies. Yeah. So, for you, of course, as you mentioned, when it comes to public speaking and debating, that is what you are primarily focused on and in one way or the other they do kind of embody certain legal aspects or I mean they go together public speaking debates and go together with law now if let's say it's a student who is interested in something else such as dance or music while studying a serious course like law finance you know medicine or in fact any other course what

Speaker 2: would you say to someone like that? Well the thing is, everything you do should be calculated to get to an end. So if you're interested in music, it should be because you want to monetize the talent or whatever you have in music. You want to use it to your benefit and the benefits of society as a whole. So I advise you to continue to do what you love because law is a degree. It's not everybody that wants to become a lawyer who reads law. The examples like Paul Adam Autry of Metro Television who's a journalist, he had his LLB but he's not practicing. There is Nashokor who does the same. In fact, even our international law lecturer, Professor Benne, who passed sadly, did not go to court and argue and things of the sort. So, you can always have, law is like, it's also a degree, it's a piece of paper. If you feel that's your passion and you feel you can monetize your passion you can make it you can make it beneficial to you and society at large why not but make sure that it doesn't affect your grades because in the end you also need the paper yeah that's i 100

Speaker 1: percent agree with you and in fact when it comes to extracurricular activities i feel like your approach is the best don't just okay this is from my perspective i wouldn't advise someone to just be doing let's say music just for the sake of doing music sure you have an interest in it but But then at the end of the day, like you said, it's either you're making money or you're making something out of it You're helping society, you know, whether it's volunteering or something of that nature or you're making money Yes So it should be one or the other or it should support you in your Professional goals if you want to be a lawyer and then for now you are into debates in a public speaking It all comes together. So at the end of the day you are supporting your legal professional career with your extracurricular activities. Otherwise, if you're just doing an extracurricular activity just to spend time, it can take up your time, right? It can affect your grades and at the end of the day, you would get neither the paper nor any money or benefits. Exactly. So yeah, definitely they should go together. So far, you are now in your final year. So for three years, you have been very, very much engaged in extracurricular activities and at the same time studying. Has there ever been a problem? Has there ever been a clash? Yes

Speaker 2: so in my second year I was selected to represent the University in Dar es Salaam Tanzania at the African University to be a championship and you know I was this level 200 boy, normally it's for the seniors but I was picked from 200 and said go and do it you know the school said I should go and I was so excited that we had exam and i actually said i will not write the exam but i would go but i would go because i don't really i don't want to let the school down sort of i go and i come back and i'm supposed to take my papers and it becomes a problem of course because i go in the middle of exam and i come back and the plane lands and i'm rushing to come and write a paper

Speaker 1: that sounds terrible from the airport so the grade wasn't it wasn't what i would

Speaker 2: have it wasn't an a well it wasn't bad but it wasn't an a like it's not something that i am known for it was it could have been better that's the thing that means my academics

Speaker 1: still took a hit that's true if you could have done better but then

Speaker 2: because of because of exactly my academics still took a hit because i could have written i could have paid attention i could have focused written done well and then maybe go for another competition another time that's which still happened because it was hosted then the following next year and i i went and i excelled and so but you cannot regret you can just look so you don't regret i actually don't i just learned from the past and because i used to be someone who regrets stuff a lot i got to a point in time and then you realize you know you just buy depression for yourself why don't you people just live life and listen

Speaker 1: That's true. I mean, at the end of the day, it's not like you failed, but if you did fail, which I'm not putting it out there, but just, you know, as a hypothetical, what would you have felt? Would you have changed your perception on extracurricular activities and studies?

Speaker 2: Yes. If I had failed, I would have. I would have.

Speaker 1: You would have started focusing more on studies.

Speaker 2: studies. Yes, because the primary reason of coming to the university was for studies, not for extracurricular activities. It's true, extracurricular activities makes you meet the connections, great connections. School is important. Similarly, extracurricular activities are important because I've been to places, I've spoken to people, I've, you know, gotten contacts at a very young age that you think, oh, how did I do all of this? I mean I wasn't born into that class but it's the extracurricular activities they pushed you they pushed you there but you must also remember to apply yourself to learning because the hype can get you there but the substance will keep you there so you must know your worth, you must know your worth, you must know your source you must know what you must know right it's not just it's not just all about the hype and the noise because if it's the hype and the noise is there and you get there and you cannot deliver of course you'll be a disappointment so you must apply yourself to everything you know take your studies seriously and remember that the hype will get you there

Speaker 1: but the substance will keep you there very important guys i absolutely agree with apricot i think that there should always be a balance to everything that you are doing and if you are in school you should take your studies seriously now of course it doesn't mean that you should necessarily get a first class but you know you should be able to get a good enough yes you should be able to get good enough grades and at the same time develop yourself in other areas or one particular area which you know you have the strength you know to to focus on and to excel in so 100% agreed now apricot for our fellow debaters and then public speakers out there who are also studying in university what advice do you have you've chosen the right path and always remember

Speaker 2: that public speaking and debating in the past used to be thought of as a soft skill. It no longer is. It's highly crucial because discourse is the fundamental basis of our democracy and you know I signed up to LinkedIn last year and you see what our age mates and our juniors are doing and you wonder am I serious at all? So public speaking and debating is important but you must always know where you are needed right I posted this thing once and you know Sia Ferna, the musician Sia, she wrote her songs, she used to be a songwriter, well she still is but she was mainly a songwriter and persons like Brihanna and Adele rejected the music, the pieces she wrote for them she decided to put all of it on an album in an album this is acting and it blew like it was a large hits that's where you had songs like chandelier and and work in the Sun and some of the top hits actually so the problem is not necessarily you the problem is who you are pitching your ideas to the problem is your audience so as a public speaker and a debater you must know your audience you must know where you fit you must know where your opportunities can shine and how to take advantage of those opportunities at those places when you

Speaker 1: know that, right? You just launch. Wow. Thank you so much Aprikul for this brilliant advice and I hope that you guys have learned something and that you have also enjoyed this video because we have come to the end of this video. So thank you so much Aprikul. Thank you for having me. And thank you for watching. I hope to see you guys in another video but for now we are just saying bye. Bye-bye.