Earlham alums work to make the world a better place — beginning at home.
Taking Out the Trash: Eric Twumasi ’25
Eric Ford Twumasi ’25 first walked onto the Earlham campus dreaming of a career in business, finance or leadership in the non-profit world.
But always in the back of his mind was the plight of his homeland of Ghana, where trash and pollution have threatened the health of residents of the West African nation. Before embarking on any career, he was determined to do what he could to affect change there.
Today that dream has become a reality.
Twumasi, an Earlham College senior with a double major in business and mathematics, has used a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant to create a system in his home country to combat contamination and disease, employ and educate residents in the fight against pollution and, ultimately, foster a sense of community.
The project is called the “Kama Campaign,” kama meaning clean in Akan, one of the predominant languages in Ghana.
“We launched the project in May and are now working to make it sustainable,” he said. “We’re starting on a small scale but hopefully someday can make it something to give to our nation.”
Kama Campaign workers have placed industrial-sized trash bins on the streets around his home community of Ayigya Zongo, a poor suburb of the city of Kumasi.
Paid residents empty the bins, taking the trash and refuse to a recycling center, about two hours away.
Workers, especially young people, were hired to walk the streets and inform residents about the collection bins, about recycling and the importance of proper disposal of refuse.
“This project is about much more than waste collection,” Twumasi said. “It is about empowerment and sustainability.”
Twumasi grew up in the Ayigya Zongo neighborhood and witnessed first-hand the health and environmental crisis facing his community.
The smell of sewage filled the air. Trash choked the streets and river banks. Residents dumped refuse in public drains, in violation of government regulations, causing flooding and added health risks. Cholera, diarrheal disease and typhoid fever were rampant. A 2021 study by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology identified his region as a “hot spot” for cholera.
“When I was in high school I saw the extent of the problem,” Twumasi said. “People were dying from cholera. What I witnessed spoke to me. I asked myself what can I do to help with this.”
At Earlham, Twumasi wrote his plan, which included partnering with the environmental education advocacy group, Terraplus Ghana, and with the Kumasi Compost and Receiving Plant, the largest such plant in Africa.
The campaign has taken off, especially the educational component.
“It was like a political campaign, we had people going street by street,” Twumasi said. “And the result has been very positive. People have been receptive. Already we’ve noticed a significant change. The area is much, much cleaner.”
Twumasi hired students from the science and technology’s visual arts department to design the 100 industrial -sized waste bins purchased for the project. He also bought two motorized tricycles for hauling waste to the recycling plant.
He has met with the region’s municipal authority and a member of the country’s parliament to gain their approval.
“They thought it was a great idea. There is definitely interest in this project,” he said.
The campaign also included a “Kama Club” to bring residents together to learn about recycling, proper sanitation and community. Already 76 people have signed up.
“It has appealed to young people, especially young mothers. They have been very receptive. It is actually working just the way I hoped it would and I am so pleased,” Twumasi said. “People are working to clean up our neighborhoods and getting paid for it. They are working and earning an income and the results have been obvious.”
Bins are being filled and then emptied, streets and riverbanks are showing less trash. And education is continuing.
Twumasi learned of the grant possibility in his honors program at Earlham. He watched as Earlham junior Ted Jacquet ’23 received the Projects for Peace grant in 2021 for a project in Haiti and another classmate, Wisdom Boinde ’23, received the grant the following year for a project in Ghana.
“Ted and Wisdom guided me, which was a big help. I learned so much from them,” Twumasi said.
Jacquet was also president of Net Impact at Earlham, a club focused on helping students become entrepreneurs and create non-profits that inspire climate action and sustainability.
“Being involved in Net Impact reminded me of what I had experienced in my home,” Twumasi said. “As much as I wanted to go into a chosen field I also wanted to have a non-profit which would allow me to give back to my country.”
Nate Eastman, Earlham professor of English and director of the honors program, met Twumasi in his first-year honors seminar. Eastman said Kama Campaign fit nicely into the program’s values of motivation, excellence, leadership and humanity.
“Eric’s project kind of checks all those boxes,” Eastman said. “What I saw in Eric was a strict attention to finding ways of addressing these real world, complex problems.”
Eastman nominated Twumasi’s Kama Campaign for the National Collegiate Honors Council’s Engagement Award, which allowed Twumasi to present at the NCHC’s annual conference.
“That was a great experience for him,” Eastman said. “Big ideas don’t always solve complex problems. Instead it takes hard work to handle a lot of moving parts and details and Eric is really, really good at that.”
In a short period of time, the Kama Campaign has laid a foundation for waste management and community development.
“One of the things we focus on is developing programs that help our fellow human beings,” Eastman said. “Eric’s project really spoke to the values of our honors program.”
So, as the work continues in the streets, Twumasi is looking ahead to possible expansion.
“Right now I’ve begun looking for investors to help move the project forward,” he said. “I am so thrilled because while we are advocating for the environment we are also advocating for the people.”
Community Convener: Dakota Collins ’15
When Dakota Collins ’15 was a sophomore at Richmond High School a friend “dragged” him to a student council meeting. It was a modest start to what became a way of life. That meeting lit a spark in Collins that inspired him to be involved and to lead, first in student government, then city government, in local politics, in community activities and economic development efforts.
His path was never easy but was made easier by friends, family, mentors and community leaders who welcomed him, encouraged him, supported him.
When he graduated high school, Earlham became the perfect fit for him. “I was one of those activist students and I knew Earlham was a great place for activist students,” Collins said.
When he graduated, he committed to working in his hometown, to lend his dedication and passion to the effort to steer his community toward future success. Today, Collins is director of community relations at Earham and is leading an effort that could reshape and rebuild the city’s business district for years to come.
The effort is called Revitalize Richmond and is being fueled by a five-year, $25 million grant that the College secured from Lilly Endowment Inc. in 2024. The funds will help local leaders rebuild the downtown business district, support entrepreneurs, save endangered historic buildings and, most importantly, connect the Earlham community to Richmond’s central city.
“Earlham has waxed and waned with community relations for decades,” Collins said. “Ever since the Vietnam War there has been this town-gown divide and over the last 50 years it has gotten better and it has gotten worse. This is an opportunity for Earlham to be a community leader again and continue that role beyond the five-year life of the grant,” he said.
Collins studied business, politics and psychology at Earlham and, after graduation, worked in local politics and business before being hired at Earlham as director of annual giving. He relished his role as one who raised money to bring new students to campus.
“It was the same group of feelings that brought me to Earlham in the first place; this desire to give back to the college and to give back to another generation of Earlhamites,” Collins said.
While working in fund-raising for five years, Collins noticed that no one’s full-time role at the college was focused on community relations. He volunteered to take that job on part time, renewing his commitment to Earlham as being an important part of the community’s development. When the college received the Lilly grant, Collins took on the task of handling the grant full-time.
“I can’t take credit for bringing the grant here,” he said. “We have a fantastic grants team that helped me throughout the process and wrote the actual proposal and did so much of the work. My role was more to bring in the community and help decide where the money would do the most good.”
Still, acclaim has followed his efforts to make the grant a reality.
“Dakota is a tremendous example of how a local Earlham College graduate can really make a difference in our community,” said Valerie Shaffer, the president of the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, one of the key players in the project along with Richmond city and Wayne County governments, Reid Health, private investors, local foundations and non-profits.
“He has taken ownership of this project in a way that has shown his passion for this community,” Shaffer said. “He has grown into such a strong leader, not only for this project but in the community as a whole.”
“Dakota has been a huge asset for us,” added Beth Fields, the City of Richmond’s director of Strategic Initiatives. “He has served as convener of this group and has played an important role in making sure we have a broad range of voices around the table. For this project to succeed it was hugely important for us to have people involved and contributing.”
His commitment comes, he said, from his love of the Richmond community and the people who have supported him, taught him and helped him grow.
“This is my home,” he said. “I’ve thought about doing something else but I don’t think I would have the passion to go somewhere else and do the things I’m doing here. I love and care about this community. It has supported me in ways for which I will forever be in its debt.”
As an undergrad at Earlham, Collins took to heart one of Earlham’s underlying themes: think globally and act locally.
“That’s what makes Earlham really, really special,” Collins said. “My experience there was unique. Bringing in people from 75 different nations and all of these different backgrounds gives you incredible perspective on the world. The other piece for me was how do you take that perspective you’ve been given, that broader view, and use it to help the people and systems that are closest you. That’s what it’s always meant to me. It’s who I am now.”
What drew Collins to Earlham was “that system of shared governance from the administration to the faculty and then, for me, to the students,” he said. “Student participation in governance of the institution made this place seem important and weighty, significant and appealing.”
The Lilly grant was built to foster cooperation between the school and the community at large. Revitalize Richmond will result in the development of new urban housing in downtown, improved transit connecting Earlham’s campus to downtown, new outdoor recreation opportunities in the Whitewater Valley Gorge and other quality-of-place improvements to help Earlham and Richmond grow together.
The $25 million was available but only to serve as 30 percent of the funding. The rest, or $56 million, had to be “found” locally.
Fortunately, several downtown housing projects provided much of the balance of dollars needed to secure the grant. A total of $83 million in local matches from local leaders will result in more than $100 million in investments across the city.
Collins sees the grant as a “launching pad” for the continued development of the downtown and Earlham’s connection to the city.
“It’s not just about the five years of the grant and getting as much done as we can,” he said. “It’s to get us started and lay the foundation so that other people can take up the mantel and do more.
“We want to see the revitalization continue for years to come and we at Earlham want to be a part of that,” he said.