Courtesy of Dennis Ashong

Staff Member of the Month October 2024

Written by Dessalines Yamoussou, editor-in-chief

Meet Dennis Ashong, a graduate research student, born in Ghana, West Africa, and raised in San Jose, CA. He graduated from San Jose State with a B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry. He was awarded the Bridge to Doctorate scholarship at Fresno State. 

Ashong is conducting research in organic chemistry with the hopes of synthesizing smaller molecules that could potentially treat prostate cancer. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and watching movies.

Uhuru: What brought you to Fresno State?

Dennis: I received a scholarship to complete a master’s degree at Fresno State. San Jose State does have a master’s degree in that option and I wanted to experience a different environment. San Jose is urbanized and it is in the middle of downtown. It’s a nice school and I enjoyed my time over there. Here I received the Bridge to Doctorate scholarship. It’s for people who are pursuing a Ph.D after they get their master’s. 

Uhuru: Who has inspired you on your journey to higher education?

Dennis: I had some really good professors that helped me to get to where I am right now. As an undergrad, I did research with Dr. Terrill, my research advisor. He gave me the opportunity to get my hands dirty and to try different things. Dr. Singmaster, the department chair, pointed me towards all the different programs that are available. Literally my freshman year, even before school started, I got an email talking about LSAMP (Louise Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) and all these different programs for minority students. I didn’t even know what they were. They were sent out and I looked at them. Later on, I talked to her and she encouraged me to look into these opportunities and encouraged me to go to conferences. She told me I could get a stipend for doing research and all this great stuff. I was like, okay, and that propagated to me doing research later on. A lot of times people, like me, don’t know these things exist. 

Uhuru: What advice would you give to a freshman who sees you and eventually decides to obtain their master’s and doctorate in biochemistry?

Dennis: That’s a tough one because I don’t want to discourage anybody. My answer would be you have to create your own path. You want to make your own story. You don’t want to follow my story because everybody has to live their own life; to each their own. You can try to do something similar to what I have done, but you gotta do it your own way.