A Ghanaian, Mcfranklyn P.V. Amaning, has become the First African in Arizona State to receive the United States’ Presidential Recognition and Volunteer service award.

America has a long and proud tradition of volunteer service. Now, more than ever, volunteers are renewing their commitment to help others and forging connections that bring people closer together as families, neighbours, communities, and as a nation.

Recognizing and honouring volunteers sets a standard for service, encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation and inspires others to make service a central part of their lives.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes United States’ citizens and lawfully admitted permanent residents of the United States who have achieved the required number of hours of service over a 12-month time period – or cumulative hours over the course of a lifetime.

Mcfranklyn P.V. Amaning, a 32 year-old Ghanaian, recently received this esteemed award from the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Mcfranklyn has worked in the Information Technology (IT) industry for more than 10 years. He started his IT career working in internet cafés including Sam & Sim in Nima, as well as Esigabe café in Alajo. He also worked for AllPort Ghana as IT Support. He later moved to Procredit SLC and worked as a System Administrator.

Because he wanted to expand his IT career, he moved to America to work with Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the biggest health insurance companies in the U.S., as Lead System Operator and Engineer.

Mcfranklyn is a dynamic person who always wants to learn more and move ahead. He was approached by Wipro to work at Honeywell as Head of Systems and Active Directory Architect. Honeywell is a world-renowned Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address some of the world’s toughest challenges linked to global macro trends such as energy efficiency, clean energy generation, safety and security, globalization and customer productivity.

From Honeywell he moved to Western Alliance Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, working there as Head of Enterprise Architect Design and Engineer. Mcfranklyn has helped numerous companies in Ghana, the United States, Germany and Canada to secure their corporate network security.

His education and qualifications are remarkable. He holds a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Forensics, as well as professional certifications for Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), ITILv3, Microsoft Certified System Engineer, Microsoft Certified Solution Associate, Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure Expert, and Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert.

He is one of the first five people in the world to pass the initial release of Microsoft’s Certified Solutions Expert 2012 (MCITP) and he was awarded a charter membership from Microsoft.

Additional achievements include certificates received from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defence. He is the founder of Rural Empower, an NGO in Kwabibirim, Ghana, helping the rural people. He is also the founder of Abibirim Multimedia in the State of Arizona, and AfroNation Radio, a radio station which focuses on sharing and spreading knowledge about African culture.

While in the U.S., he has used his knowledge not only for himself, but for the benefit of others through volunteer work and community service. He has developed and organized seminars and training for retirement homes in Sun City, Tempe, and Mesa city libraries, as well as the police department in Arizona. His outstanding work to prevent cybercrime and 419 were reduced in the cities of Phoenix and Mesa, and the State of Arizona as a whole. Based on this remarkable work, he was the first African (Ghanaian) in Arizona State to receive the Presidential Recognition and Volunteer service award.

His favorite quote is: "There are 31,530,000 seconds in a year, a thousand milliseconds in a second, a million microseconds, and a billion nanoseconds. The one constant connecting nanoseconds to years is change. The universe, from atom to galaxy, is in a perpetual state of flux. But we humans don't like change; we fight it, it scares us. So we create the illusion of stasis. We want to believe in a world at rest, the world of right now, yet our great paradox remains the same. The moment we grasp the now that now is gone. We cling to snapshots, but life is moving pictures, each nanosecond different from the last. Time forces us to grow, to adapt because every time we blink our eyes the world shifts beneath our feet. Every day, every moment, every nanosecond, the world changes. Electrons bump into each other and react; people collide and alter each other's paths. Change isn't easy, more often it's wrenching and difficult, but maybe that's a good thing, because it is change that makes us strong, keeps us resilient, and teaches us to evolve." – Jake Bohm