While students at Ohio University are applying for programs and scholarships to study abroad in Ghana, some Ghanaian students are going through similar applications to study in Athens.
OU has created a network of alumni in Ghana through its programs and connections with schools in the West African country.
Steve Howard, director of the African Studies program, said it was easy to establish strong connections with Ghana because of its stable government, economy and focus on education.
OU has three professors from Ghana. Notable OU alumni in Ghana include the registrars – or presidents – of four of the five largest Ghana universities, Howard said.
In the 2012-13 school year, there were 46 students from Ghana studying at OU, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
“Word of mouth is very important and that’s why (OU) has a relatively large population of Ghanaians,” Howard said.
OU President Roderick McDavis visited Ghana in 2010 to deliver the commencement address at the African University College of Communications in Accra, Howard said.
One program that draws students from Ghana to OU is the Otumfuo scholarship, which covers tuition for a Ghanaian student to study African studies in OU’s graduate program.
The scholarship, awarded every other year, was most recently granted to Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, now a first-year doctoral student studying media arts and studies.
After he received the scholarship to complete his master’s degree in African studies, Antwi-Boasiako said he decided to stay at OU to earn his doctorate.
“I’m committed to advancing my education to the highest degree to help develop myself and my own community,” Antwi-Boasiako said. “I think it’s just advantageous knowing and interacting with people from different places that I wouldn’t have met from people in Ghana.”
Currently, students can apply to study media and governance, or arts and culture in Ghana, but Glenn Matlack, OU associate professor of forest ecology, is working to also establish a program studying tropical ecology.
Although the program was unable to draw enough participants during the economic recession, Matlack said he hopes to take seven to 14 students to Ghana to give students the opportunity to study the country’s diverse climates and rainfalls.
“There is value for them because they get exposed to a modern, up-to-date program in ecology, and there’s value to us because we’re exposed to a different perspective from outside the United States,” Matlack said.
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