Alabama Ghana Study Abroad Program Helps Change Lives

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Ghana Study Abroad Program has changed the lives of those involved in the program as well as improving life for young people in the African country.

The three-year-old study abroad program is designed to help UA students understand the world view from the West African country of Ghana and to learn African culture and its impact on national development and the environment. The program tries to combat cultural misunderstandings and generalities by giving a face to Africa as well as to America.

This year, 12 UA students traveled to Ghana from May 24-June 11 as part of Geography 444/544 Field Studies in Africa, a class open to students in all majors.

“When you look at the study abroad programs that UA offers, it is a very unique program. There are misunderstandings about Africa that can only be counteracted by visiting,” notes Valerie Phillips, instructor for the Ghana Study Abroad Program and director of the UA Community Service Center.

The UA students participated in community service activities such as donating 500 books to Val Phillips Preparatory and Junior Secondary School in Axim, Ghana. At the school, named for UA’s Phillips, each student spent a day in a classroom teaching the children about Alabama.

“The students charge was to share who they are. They taught the kids about the state of Alabama, the University, and special things about Alabama like the NASA Space Center. The end result was the students began to understand that they could change the world, they could make a difference,” said Phillips.

Students were also exposed to emotionally charged and eye-opening realities of Africa. A clear example of this was their visit to the Elmina Slave Castle in Elmina, Ghana – an experience that took the historical relationship between Africa and Alabama beyond a textbook understanding to one that was personal and real.

“Taking students from the textbooks to reality makes them deal with the academy of learning about slavery, the reality of the slave trade and the emotions brought up by slavery,” said Dr. Seth Appiah-Opoku, UA assistant professor of geography and director of the Alabama Ghana Program.

Other site visits included the Obuasi gold mine, Nzulezu village built on a lake, Boabeng monkey sanctuary, Volta Dam, a national rain forest with canopy walk and a traditional priest. The students kept a journal of each experience they had in Ghana in order to facilitate conversation about those experiences in the evenings.

“The journals were important because they allowed the students to be open and honest about their feelings and thoughts. The journals are reviewed by the professors and used to help students see the world view of Ghana and the differences and similarities with America,” Phillips explained.

This experiential education course incorporated knowledge gained from target readings, lectures and informal interviews, hands-on community service, observations and analysis, and group discussions. Students earned academic credit by conducting independent research related to their individual majors. The study abroad concluded with students’ oral presentations and research papers that highlighted their findings, analysis and conclusions.