Bertha Bridget Kankam (MBET ’22) recently completed her master’s degree in business, entrepreneurship and technology (MBET) at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.
That is a worthy success in and of itself, but Kankam is not your typical MBET student. Better known to many as Yaa Yaa, she is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Ghana.
Yaa Yaa was 19 years old when she won first place in the Ghanaian reality singing show Stars of the Future competition.
Working closely with other artists and performers, she realized there was a lack of local support for aspiring singers looking to improve their vocals. She branched out from managing her brand, Yaa Yaa, to start a vocal training practice called Vocal Hub. It was a huge hit from the start and demand for its services soon skyrocketed.
Yaa Yaa didn’t have the business skills or the tools to manage Vocal Hub, let alone grow it. She looked around for an MBA program that specialized in entrepreneurship and found Waterloo’s MBET degree.
“The course ticked all my professional development boxes, so I applied, said Yaa Yaa. “And I’m happy I did – it was the right one for me for sure. I’m really interested in venture creation and I came away with the practical learnings I need to help startups in the creative sector develop innovative solutions to their business problems.”
Go to Mastering her voice for the full story.