Anita Kissi
28 Apr 2023
Five years ago the Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games, drawing an international television audience of 1.5 billion people and putting our city on the world map. It was an incredibly exciting time to be here – fuelled by an atmosphere of anticipation and expectation with the promise of so much possibility.
It was within this environment that Anita Kissi, a Canadian of Ghanaian heritage, had come to the Gold Coast to study Law at Bond University. Anita was chosen as a Mayor’s Student Ambassador that year and with that honour came a wealth of opportunities. She became a student envoy to the Canadian Commonwealth Games team, met with a number of high ranking international delegates, and she also addressed a packed house at a city trade forum as part of the Games program.
Anita also became one of the most recognisable faces from Study Gold Coast’s diversity campaign which was launched just ahead of the Games and which culminated in the formation of a human rainbow featuring hundreds of students from around the world on the beach in front of the international media centre.
Later that year Anita was all over the media again when she launched her children’s book Little Hope, Big Hope, a book now stocked by some of the leading global book retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
After graduation Anita went home to Canada to commence her legal career and she returned to the Gold Coast earlier this month for a brief visit, giving us the chance to revisit her Gold Coast experience and how it shaped her life.