Faustina Ewoenam Foli – Miss Ghana 2019

My name is Faustina Ewoenam Foli and I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am a senior at the University of Utah with double major in both Psychology (BS), and Human Development and Family Studies (BS). Hopefully, I will be graduating in May 2019. I am currently a member of the WRITE 4 CHANGE FOUNDATION which I am serving as the International Relations Officer since July 2017. It is a solution oriented charitable organization made up of young adults who are passionate about bringing positive changes in the society. It is also a team of people who want to empower the less privileged and vulnerable individuals by volunteering and partaking in social activities, while making positive contribution within the communities. I am also an intern at the Rape Recovery Center here in Utah where I am a Crisis Line Advocate. One of my many passions is to be an advocate for young children especially young girls who have been through and are still going through any other type abuse, to find their voice and be able to seek help through the most reliable resources.

Faustina loves reading and watching documentaries related to human lives and also on stories that tell what is going on around the world. Gaining information through these media helps me to know what is going on around the world and what I think I can do to contribute or help in the society. I love dancing and listening to people. Dancing brings out my confidence and my true spirit. Listening to people helps me to see life in a different perspective because I gain the knowledge that people express their true feelings when the speak, especially when they know that people are genuinely listening to them. I want to be a Health Psychologist, a Counsellor, and a Community Advocate. It is my desire to work with young children most importantly because they are the most vulnerable humans in our society and I also feel that they need all the guidance, protection and education that will prepare them for the future.

I grew up in a male domination family with very few females. And being the oldest female in my generation, I had and still have a lot of young girls in my family looking up to me. Automatically, I became a role model right from a very young age, and it is my desire to continue being a good one as that to all people. I was raised together with my two brothers by my mother and late maternal grandmother. My dad left to the States when I was just a year and 3 months old. At the age of 8, I found out that I have a lisp, but I didn’t know what that meant so I was unbothered. I began to feel the shame and humilations in my early teenage years when I realized that people laughed at me whenever I speak and some words didn’t sound so well because I had difficulties with some pronunciations. Not forgetting that I was very intelligence and brave, I still felt the shame of people mocking me and I always asked, “why am I so different?” I was the only one in my family with this problem but the good thing was that my family always make sure I feel good and loved, that is where I got my confidence from.

I have lived and grown to become who I am today because of my grandmother. She helped me to build my self-esteem and confidence. Even though she only attained her highest education in High School, she was very brilliant and discipline. I grew up in Ghana my motherland for almost 19 years until I moved to the United States in March 2013 together with my mother and two brothers to finally live with my dad. I was about to complete high school but had to finish it up here in the States a year after (2014) to get my diploma. It was a different environment for me because I now have to go to different school, meet new people and then have to expose my problem. Luckily for me, it was a different environment but a safe one. People were less judgmental and are willing to help more than to criticize.

That is how my confidence grew stronger and I became more open-minded and love to speak in public. I changed from being an introvert to gradually becoming opened and friendly. I fell in love with Psychology after 2 years in college. I want to give back to my community and the world beyond, by helping young children find their voices just like I have found mine. Though I still have this lisp problem and may live with this for the rest of my life, I am never giving up because the more I have realized as time goes by that, I have a lot to offer to the world and pressing my energy on my lisp will not help me to achieve my goals.