The beginning of a new semester is a time to settle back into an old routine. However, some members of the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service, took the beginning of the semester as an opportunity to improve the international service opportunities available for students. From Jan. 8 to 18 three faculty members and one doctoral student visited Ghana to help foster ties in the nation.
“The main purpose of the trip was to go and meet with nongovernmental organizations to find out how students can be related to Ghana in the future,” Mike Giancola, the director of CSLEPS, said.
Giancola said the organizations the group met with included faculty at Ghanaian universities. The trip will be one of many to the country for students and faculty, according to Giancola.
“We tried to develop relationships with organizations within Ghana, and to add some opportunities for service learning,” Giancola said. “We are hoping to take another group of students back to Ghana at this time next year.”
The Study Abroad Office offers several different semester, summer and spring break trips to Ghana, and the majority of NCSU programs in Africa are based in Ghana. According to the Study Abroad Office Web site, Ghana is significant because it is the ancestral homeland of many African descendants in America.
The next upcoming event for NCSU involving Ghana is the spring break trip. This trip will also focus on service learning. Those students who will travel to the country on the upcoming spring break trip will have the opportunity to be a part of a unique celebration, as the students will be in the country on March 6, the day that marks the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s reclamation of independence from colonial powers.
The spring break trip is part of what Mike Giancola said he hopes will be a continuing tradition for students. Giancola said helping future students who may want to travel to the country was one of the major points of the trip.
“We developed some outstanding partnerships during the trip, and we are working on developing more opportunities for students,” Giancola said. Chris Lett, an AmeriCorps Vista community service coordinator with CSLEPS who went on the trip, agreed that the future was bright for relations between the University and Ghana.
“The University has had a good relationship with Ghana for a while now,” Lett said. “They have been doing trips to Ghana through the Africana Studies program for about 10 years now. This is the first trip to the African continent for CSLEPS, but we hope it won’t be the last.”
Lett said there were several reasons why Ghana was such a good fit for students and faculty looking to travel to Africa.
“One reason why Ghana is so attractive is that it is a peace country — they have had peace there for about 20 years now,” Lett said. “There is no danger of a coup or of civil war.”
Lett said the language also made Ghana a great place for NCSU students.
“Ghana is an English-speaking country, and this makes for easy access for Americans,” Lett said.
