The spring semester started in the third week of January with the usual weeklong orientation geared towards getting the 30 students to learn about their new environment and to settle in. One of the highlights of the orientation was the “internship fair” which brought together thirty-three representatives from some of our partner organizations and institutions, which offer placements to our interns. That face-to-face interaction between representatives and the students followed by Q&A was mutually beneficial. In the words of a student, “the internship and volunteer experiences have been inextricably linked to our overwhelmingly positive time in Ghana. The internship and volunteer placements enabled us to engage with the community and to learn how to interact and communicate cross-culturally.”
With regard to academics, nineteen courses were offered this semester taught by 16 accomplished local scholars and Dr. Renee Blake, a visiting NYU professor. As was the case the previous semester, one of her courses, Sex, Gender and Language, was opened to University of Ghana students and was held at that campus based on the long-standing agreement between the two institutions. It is heartwarming to report that the local students are interested in joint classes.
Our students enjoyed group excursion to various parts of the country. A student blogged as follows, “How many GNU sites offer three overnight weekend trips throughout the country for free? Each student who traveled on these programs was grateful for the opportunity to see more of Ghana.”
NYU Accra also hosted intersession programs from NYU Abu Dhabi and Steinhardt’s Department of Occupational Therapy. And throughout the semester, the staff prepared to host six NYU summer programs, including Stern International Volunteers who visited the site for the first time. There were a number of faculty visits, and we are happy to report that Dr. Michael Gomez of the History Department, a member of the Accra Site Specific Advisory Committee, was one of them.