Why Study Abroad and the “Year of Return: Ghana 2019” Matter

“Wow!” That turned into Deken Taylor’s reaction when I confirmed him 20 Cedis from Ghana. Taylor, a University of North Texas public relations student from Pittsburg, Texas, had by no means seen money offering six Black guys.Study abroad

Just because of the pictures of U.S. Presidents on U.S. Foreign money, the six men on the 20 Cedis are history makers and well-known in Ghana for being leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). The six men – Ebenezer Ako Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Emmanuel Odarwei Obsetsebi-Lamptey, and William Ofori Atta – are founding fathers of the nation that received its independence from British rule in 1957. The bank is aware of becoming simply one of the souvenirs I used as a teaching device with some UNT students after giving 3 visitor lectures about cellular/social media developments, virtual disruption in media, and gender disparities in media at the University of Ghana March.

I found out there is an awful lot of possibility to teach our students and others about study abroad alternatives on the African continent after a colleague asked what language became spoken at the University of Ghana, the largest college in West Africa with nearly forty-five,000 college students. My response: English.

He also asked if the men had been separated from the ladies in training. My reaction: No. And primarily based on studies and diverse marketing billboards, faith is massive in Ghana.
Djuana Young, an associate vice chairman for enrollment at Texas Wesleyan University, first visited Ghana in 1990 as a pupil and returned this spring and her daughter, Avery, for a mother-daughter vacation.

Young stated the Ghanaian “human beings stay, work, and feature the identical goals and dreams” that Americans do. “Parents need their baby to be successful,” she stated.
Audrey Gadzekpo, a University of Ghana professor, stated women outnumber men in the grasps and Ph.D. Application inside the Department of Communication Studies. The college attracts college students from more than 70 countries or territories.

For those who work in worldwide education applications, it comes as no wonder that there is much work to diversify worldwide programs in higher education. Most outbound have a look at overseas students from the U.S. Are in all likelihood to be White and lady. According to a 2018 Diversity Abroad document, “experts in global education reflect the prevailing demographic profile of college students in education abroad within the United States.”

About 71 percent of the survey respondents had been White, and 29 percentage have been humans of color. No survey respondents were diagnosed as Native American. Women represented approximately seventy-nine percent of the respondents, accompanied by utilizing men at 20 percentage and about zero.2 percent recognized as transgender.

Adam Freed, a college family members supervisor with CISabroad, offered the subsequent recommendation in a 2018 Diversity Abroad blog put up: “First, we want to raise diverse professionals inside the field and offer them possibilities to proportion their know-how and specific angle. Secondly, we need to lease various team of workers to fill our look at overseas workplaces at all levels.”

It is a blessing that oldsters like Marquita Smith, a John Brown University professor, and Fulbright student, in addition to UNT colleagues with Ghanaian roots along with Gideon Alorwoyie, a music professor and global-magnificence drummer, Charles Blankson, a business professor, and Joseph Oppong, a geography professor and partner dean of the UNT Toulouse Graduate School, shared their understanding and stories.

Thanks to a UNT International grant, my March mission turned into exploring options for a take a look at overseas application with students in 2020 and destiny research collaborations. It turned into an expert development deal as the Ghanaian authorities promoted “Year of Return, Ghana 2019.”

The party marks the four-hundredth anniversary of slave ships from the coast of West Africa arriving in Virginia. It also coincides with the biennial Pan African Historical Theatre Festival, scheduled for July 25-31. Read extra about the competition here. Although I will not make that festival, I propose traveling as a minimum of 4 websites: the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra, Kakum National Park, the Cape Coast, and Elmina Castles.

Du Bois is noted for being the first Black to earn a doctorate from Harvard, a historian, sociologist, Pan-Africanist, author of The Souls of Black Folk, and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His wife, Shirley Graham DuBois, became a founding director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and being a creator, playwright, composer, and social/political activist.

Tours to Kakum National Park, the Cape Coast, and Elmina Castles are day trips from Accra. Tour guides shared that each fortress had a “door of no go back” as heaps of slaves were handed thru dungeons earlier than they were shipped to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade generation from the 16th to nineteenth centuries.

At Cape Coast Castle, the “door of no return” has been updated and categorized as the “door or go back” to encourage descendants of the African Diaspora to go to and learn extra about their African roots. The castles have become museums, traveler points of interest, and international history sites below the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Besides experiencing masses of records, culture, meals, track, and adventure, a part of the joy in the journey is the human beings you meet. The “spring damage” journey turned into Young’s first mom-daughter trip to Ghana. “I wanted her to see and recognize what a robust people we come from,” said Young. “We have what it takes to persevere and make it.”

Jaclyn H. Dempsey
Jaclyn H. Dempsey
I’ve worked in education since my first year of college when I tutored students in Spanish. Since then, I’ve helped students prepare for standardized tests, master algebraic equations, and write poetry essays. I am an adjunct instructor at NYU’s Center for Continuing Education. In my spare time, I write a series of educational posts about teaching, study methods, and life skills on my blog, Prodigibook.com. Check out my blog if you’re looking for tips and tricks to improve your study or classroom performance.

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