Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE-Three professors at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville are giving students the opportunity to study abroad by creating a new winterim class that will travel to Ghana, Africa. Once the class gets going, the professors hope to eventually begin a faculty exchange in Ghana.

Jennifer Mandel, assistant professor of social science and geography, Annie Kinwa-Muzinga, assistant professor of agribusiness, and Pat Foster, director of the Patricia A. Doyle Women's Center, are collaborating to teach the class, Women's Livelihoods in Ghana, which will be offered over the 2008 winterim. The class will cover the history of Ghana, women's livelihoods and everyday life experiences in production agriculture, exchange and markets and consumption, connections between rural and urban communities, and Ghana's landscapes. This three-credit class fulfills general education requirements in either social sciences, gender studies or international studies. Students choose two of these areas for their credit.

The tentative itinerary includes visits to Accra, the capital and Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city. In Accra, students will visit the U.S. Embassy and USAID, University of Ghana-Legon, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial, Craft Village, and the Mokoloa Market.

Students will then travel to Kumasi where they will visit the Asantehene's Palace, agricultural project sites, Kumasi Market and health clinics and maternities.

Other visits on the itinerary include Cape Coast, an old slave trade port; Elmina, which houses old slave forts; the Kankum Nature Reserve, and the Volta Dam.

"UWP is promoting diversity, this is a way we can take UWP to the world to achieve that commitment to diversity," Kinwa-Muzinga said.

All three professors will visit Ghana in June to finalize details of the class. Each professor has her own reason for wanting to start the class. Foster wanted to do something in Ghana dealing with women and went to Ghana when she was 19.

"I was struck when I went to Ghana. When I got off the plane, the people greeted me, 'Welcome home.' It had a profound impact on me," Foster stated.

Mandel had research in West Africa and has visited there many times. She is captivated by the culture and people. Kinwa-Muzinga is from the Congo and it has been her dream since she came to UWP to develop a class that takes students overseas to a different agriculture setting.

All three professors invite all students to enroll in the class. "The experience is worth way more than the costs. No one can take your education from you and what matters is what other things you can bring to the table," Mandel said.

Anyone wanting more information about the winterim class may contact Kinwa-Muzinga at (608) 342-1007 or kinwamua@uwplatt.edu; Foster at (608) 342-1453 or fosterp@uwplatt.edu or Mandel at (608) 342-1311 or mandelj@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Krystle Kurdi, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, kurdik@uwplatt.edu