January 29, 2016
Last fall, Priscilla Owusu-Bempah ’17, Tobel Eze-Okoli ’17, Joyce Osei Tutu ’17 and Eugene Afranie ‘17 participated in study abroad programs at partnering liberal arts colleges in the United States. In their own words, the students share highs, misgivings and lessons about their experiences.
Tobel Eze-Okoli – Macalester College
Although my expectations for my study abroad program were somewhat off track from my experiences, it was a very fulfilling and amazing experience. When I was applying for the program, I was asked what my purpose was. My main reason was to learn how to interact with people from other cultures. Although I did achieve this, it was definitely not the way I expected.
Getting to Macalester, I expected that it would be easy for me to adapt to the culture considering my experience as an international student at Ashesi. Unfortunately for me, I was slammed with the experience of “being out of your comfort zone”. Being surrounded with people from various places in the world actually threw me off and not being able to communicate properly with them due to my accent, also dampened my self-confidence. Fortunately, I took this as an opportunity to improve my speech and communication skills.
Also being in a classroom with different nationalities pushed me to be aware of the ‘other person’ in the conversation. I had to be aware of stereotyping and generalisations, was able to learn more about other cultures from topics in class and in general, see things from a different perspective. I also learned to work with people from different places and personalities outside the classroom through joining the dance team at Macalester. With everyone on the team having a different style, rather than be intimidated, I realised that I was bringing something unique to the group. Hanging out with people who have similar interests as you is absolutely the best.
My advice to prospective students would be to be open-minded. Don’t let your experience be limited to your expectations; try out for things you are interested in even though it may seem scary and be willing to grow personally. Finally, see every barrier or unfortunate incident as an opportunity to grow as a person.
Eugene Afrainie – Swathmore College
I have always been interested in enriching my college experience by taking advantage of at least one of the many international opportunities Ashesi has to offer. Now that I am a junior, a lot closer to moving into the working world, it is necessary that I gain exposure to other parts of the world, to make me a better informed global citizen. This desire pushed me to apply for the fall 2015 study abroad program, though I had not decided on which of the schools to attend. Later in a conversation with Dean K, she managed to convince me to apply to Swarthmore College (Her alma mater). I did apply and I do not regret that decision.
My semester at Swarthmore College started on a good note, finding the right balance between my social life and my academics. Taking classes in Financial Economics, Econometrics, Marketing and Photography, I shuffled between the Swathmore College and University of Pennsylvania (Upenn). The experiences on both campuses were very different but were both enjoyable as I got to experience being in a small American liberal art college and more traditional university at the same time. Most of my classes were discussion based yet very hands-on packed with numerous projects. Some of the projects we worked on involved working with faculty, staff and other students.
Notwithstanding the volume of assignment and problem sets I had each week, I still made it a point to enjoy campus social life to the fullest. I usually started my weekend on Thursday evenings at a weekly party called “Paap Night” through to Saturday evening where I would not be found missing at fraternity parties. On Sundays, I attended church on the University of Pennsylvania campus after which I would have lunch with a group of Ghanaian friends from different universities across Philadelphia. My weekends were also spiced with periodic visits to Chinatown with a group of Asian friends.
Every day presented an opportunity to meet new people with refreshing ideas and from different backgrounds, adding uniqueness to every interaction. Over a typical meal I would chat about life in different countries. This helped build my cultural and socioeconomic awareness. For instance during field trips in my Photography class, I connected with a number of prominent American, African and Asian Photographers.
My experience at Swarthmore College was very enlightening – the chance to experience college life in a new environment, with a new and highly diverse student body. In addition, being in an environment where for the first time in my life, I was part of the minority in terms of culture and race. It was a very challenging step into a new world; taking me out of my comfort zone. Amidst all these uncertainties I grew. Finally, engaging with other parts of the world and gleaning insights from multicultural and global perspectives from students, faculty and staff was a wonderful experience.
Priscilla Owusu-Bempah – Macalester College
Taking this great opportunity was by far one of the most exciting things I have done in my life, so I made sure I made the most of out of it. In order to broaden my learning experience, I signed up for courses that would challenge me even though I was haunted by thoughts of giving up. Initially, I was excited to have taken a bold step, challenging myself this way but I begun to give up during the first 2 weeks of the semester. I had come to the point of dropping these courses as I was struggling to keep up with the coursework. I would later build a high level of self confidence as I kept telling myself that I would make sure I finish what I started.
I thought it was going to be fairly easy learning and accepting people with different views and cultures but to my surprise, it was one of the difficult things for me. I found it very hard in the beginning getting to know people from different parts of the world, learning their cultures and accepting their points of view. This made me realize that I was not necessarily open-minded about other people’s opinions, largely due to my roots. Thus, I had the tendency to stick to other African students who I shared similar opinions with. Eventually, I realized staying in my comfort zone was taking away from the wealth of experience I had signed up for. So I found a way of making friends from different parts of the world and this helped me respect people with different opinions and gradually helped me become more open-minded as well.
This experience has taught me to listen more than to speak since as you may always be able to learn more than you already know. I’ve also been able to come to the conclusion that everyone is capable facing and overcoming challenges. Once you are able to go through that phase, you build confidence in your abilities. It is okay to make mistakes or fail because in failing, you are able to learn more. Lastly, the way people treat you is usually a reflection of how you present yourself, so being confident in yourself is very important.
To prospective study abroad students, it is definitely an opportunity worth taking. You will obviously get to meet new kinds of people, and also be open-minded about issues. This helps boost ones personal development.
Joyce Osei Tutu- The College of Wooster
Studying in The College of Wooster was one of my best experiences ever! In the beginning I was quite skeptical about staying there on my own, as this was something completely new to me. Although I had moved away from family and friends before, it was never more than a month and I was always in close proximity to them. Here I was in a different country and I was going to be away from home for more than three months! I was so used to being in my comfort zone that I was not sure if I was ready to take this big leap.
In the end I took this big leap and I never regretted it! The experience was great right from orientation where I made a lot of friends to the classes I took there. My professors were of great help throughout my stay as they answered questions bothering me and this helped me settle quickly. I loved my golf class the most, as I had the opportunity to network with more people and learn about their various cultures as we played together.
During my stay there, I visited amusement parks with friends and had some cookout sessions where we made Ghanaian dishes (we had missed the food so much). Not to say their food was not great; there were a variety of lovely dishes to choose from.
Enough with the classes, the food and all that! Moving on to more exciting issues, I had the chance to watch an NBA game between Miami Heats and Cleveland Cavaliers! All the basketball fans will know what this means; I saw LeBron James!
I would like to share two major things I learnt there. The first is that you should be on time for everything even if you know the people you are meeting will be late because this is a habit that will go a long way to help you in the future, if not now. Also, accept who you are and don’t try to change every single part of you to please people around you or else you will lose yourself in the end.
To all those who made this experience possible, I would like to say a very big thank you!
This spring, Susana Abraham ’17 will study at The College of Wooster, Aba Wilmot ’17 at Wheaten College and Valena McEwen ’17 will be at Macalester College.
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