Eric Boham, a True Example of the American Dream Becoming a Reality

By John Aidala

March 17, 2021

One of Eric Boham’s most recent accomplishments took place on the greens. During a 50th birthday celebration trip to Pebble Beach Golf Links, located on the Pacific Coast of California, the tenured educator and avid golfer put his skills to the test on perhaps one of the most prestigious golf courses in the world.

While playing one the most meaningful 18 holes of his life, Boham sunk a hole in one on the twelfth hole of this highly rigorous course. He was absolutely overjoyed and in complete disbelief after managing to hit one of his best shots of his golfing career.

“I left Pebble Beach in the record books as they had me sign a registry with other golfers that hit a hole in one on the course. If my son decides to go back to play a round of golf at Pebble Beach 50 years from now, he’ll see my name there, signed in the registry,” Boham said.

Although the odds of sinking a hole in one are 1 in 12,500, Boham´s success is not a surprise, for he has never let the odds stop him from getting what he desired in his life.

Born in the Republic of Ghana, Boham lived his first ten years of life in his native country. He attended boarding school, which he was not a huge fan of due to its formal and disciplinary means of instruction.

“There were no regulations preventing educators from physically disciplining their students if they went out of line, which didn’t take much,” he said.

However many positives came out of his early life in Ghana as he was home around many of his cousins and had a passion for soccer.

“Living in Ghana was fun. There was plenty of family, lots of soccer and spent time playing with my cousins,” said Boham.

Even when Boham’s mother sought out opportunities by moving to the United States, Boham brought his youthful and lively personality with him. After settling in Brooklyn, he went on through schooling in the Americas, but it was not easy. Boham went on to face challenges including his native accent, which made him sound a little bit different when speaking English. Although the national language in Ghana was English, Boham spoke a native language called Fante, which resulted in being the reason behind his unique accent.

Brooklyn also was not the easiest city to try and transition to an American way of life from a Ghanaian one.

“It was a huge adjustment for me, moving from one continent to another. It is as large of an adjustment as you’d expect it to be,” he said.

Even though he faced a copious amount of adversity during that time of transition, he knew it was best to continue to go in the right direction and keep moving forward.

Boham made it abundantly clear during our 45 minute interview that in life it is important to never settle.

“Never settle in life if you are not happy in your current situation. When I was living and working in commercial lending on Wall Street, I was not satisfied in my life,” he said.

Boham knew that he could not see himself in this profession for the remainder of his life, so he decided to take a chance on moving with his then girlfriend, who was attending medical school upstate.

While his girlfriend was trying to reach her greatest potential by going to medical school, Boham was inspired to go for his master’s degree at Union College in education as he felt that education was his calling at the time.

Boham discussed in the interview that he was always around kids in Ghana, he was in a program with kids as a high school senior and he knew that he liked being in the overall presence of them.

Because of Boham’s leap of faith of trying to live his best life, he ended up marrying his girlfriend, having two children and working passionately everyday to educate the future generations.

Although the odds may be high, never settle and do what you aspire to do in life. From Ghana, Brooklyn and then the Capital Region, Eric Boham defied the odds by setting the bar high for himself even if the odds are as high as a hole in one.