Black History Month: Joseph Sarfo Tabi
Program: Master of Land and Water Systems
February 2025 – Adapting to life in a new country has been an adventure for Joseph Sarfo Tabi, a Mastercard Foundation Scholar.
Travelling from his hometown in the Ashanti region of Ghana, he landed in Vancouver on August 1, 2024, to start the Master of Land and Water Systems (MLWS) program. While he was happy to finally be in Canada, he remembers feeling chilly even in the height of summer.
“It was sunny when we landed at the airport, but I was already feeling cold compared to home,” Tabi recalls, as he reassured himself he would be able to cope.
After landing, he was met with another surprise. A Mastercard Foundation Scholar alumni greeted him at the airport and they ate dinner at Browns on campus. Tabi didn’t recognize any menu items, ordering a chicken dish as he is familiar with chicken. It was his first time trying ramen noodle.
Academically, he has reveled in the MLWS program and has called it “eye-opening”. Soil studies has been his favourite part of the program, as he begins seeing practical applications of his studies.
“The program opened my eyes and my mind to see that soil is not just about agriculture. I have so many ideas and want to contribute to the efforts of mine reclamation through remediation techniques. In Ghana, illegal mining activities known as ‘galamsey’ have left behind degraded land – it’s a menace all over the country.”
The courses that have been particularly enlightening so far have been Soil 501: Advanced Soil Processes and Soil 503: Advanced Soil Sampling, Analyses and Data Interpretation.
As an undergraduate student, he studied Environmental Sciences, then worked in various roles at his alma mater Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, aka KNUST, in Ghana. This included being a teaching assistant and a research assistant, where some of his responsibilities included testing soils from cocoa farms for heavy metal contamination.
After being in Vancouver for a few months, he’s ventured into Vancouver’s surrounding neighbourhoods and found restaurants that give him a taste of home. He enjoys goat biryani at Indian restaurants, and he has found some Ghanaian-owned and operated restaurants in Surrey, with his favourite being Taste of Africa.
To read more stories celebrating Black History Month, click here.
Tagged with: Equity Diversity Inclusion and Indigeneity, Master of Land and Water Systems