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St. George resident to receive Harriet Tubman awardPublished: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 6:39 AMBy Staten Island AdvanceSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A bus will be leaving the parking lot of Forest Avenue Shoppers Town bright andearly on Saturday morning headed to Albany for the Harriet Tubman Humanitarian Achievement AwardsJubilee, where St. George resident Nancy Ashon-Poku will be among the 12 honorees.The awards are given to women from all regions of New York state for their community service to improvethe lives of those underserved.“They are women who exemplify the selfless, heroic efforts of Harriet Tubman,‘The Black Moses.’ Her courageous actions led over 300 slaves to freedom,” saidThomasina Williams, treasurer of the Harriet Tubman HumanitarianAchievement Awards Jubilee. The organization is an advocate for a statewideholiday to honor Tubman.Ms. Ashon-Poku, a retired educator, took the words of educator and civil rightsactivist Mary McLeod Bethune to heart: “For I am my mother’s daughter, andthe drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there isa single black boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.”ASHON-POKU: Thehonoree retired last yearafter 23 years with theDepartment of Education.The native of Charleston, S.C., moved with her parents to Greenwich Village in1957, out of the reach of Jim Crow laws that institutionalized segregationbetween blacks and whites.While working on an associate’s degree in early childhood education at City College, she earned a travelscholarship to West Africa, where she toured six countries with 30 other students.The following year, in 1972, she moved to Ghana with her three young children. She worked as a teacher inMedina, Accra and Tarkwa, finally opening a private school in Bunsaso for the children of the executives ofthe Firestone Rubber Company.When she returned to the U.S., she worked as a paraprofessional in Port Richmond and Concord highschools while she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the College of Staten Island. She became ahistory teacher, and taught at John Jay in Brooklyn and Susan Wagner for 14 years.Page 177 of 179