Isabella Robert '18 and Kelsey VanEtten '18 learn to make thread in Ghana. Photo by Celia Frieda '18
This summer, 26 students explored health, environment, education and economics for four weeks this summer, all across Ghana.
Two courses worked together in the African country — Global Health Issues (biology) and for the first time, Global Development in Ghana (sociology) — drawing on a longtime Geneseo partnership with organizations and leaders.
Each course examines themes of interdependence and interconnectedness, as Ghana undergoes rapid change with a fast-growing economy.
Professor of Biology Susan Bandoni Muench has led the global health course since 2010. It is the first year Lecturer of Sociology and Political Sciences Joanna Kirk led the sociology course. Each course is separate, but both groups visit most of the same locations and activities.
Some locations they visited included: a cacao farmer’s cooperative where they discussed effects of climate change on livelihoods; microfinance professionals; a regional hospital at which staff are pioneering disease treatments, and UNESCO World Heritage sites related to the transatlantic slave trade on the south coast.
For global development, Kirk says students considered the causes and impacts of economic and social change on the individuals and communities they meet. The class also pushed students to ask hard questions about historical and current change in the world, region, and country.
Such an interdisciplinary approach is a cornerstone of Geneseo academics, and why the global health and global development courses work together.
There was also a week-long, hands-on research and service-learning aspect to the courses. Muench has studied schistosomiasis, a tropical disease transferred by snails, through water, for more than 20 years. Students visited a disadvantaged community in the outskirts of Accra and collected snails, as well as fecal and urine samples of school children, to look for evidence of schistosomiasis infection. Geneseo students tested samples in the lab.
The students also conducted a survey of water-contact patterns and knowledge of the disease among families, and provided some education to the community, says Muench.
In context, says Muench, “students get a much better understanding of the complexity of some of the challenges. From the other side of the world, some of these problems can look like they would be easy to fix. They also have a chance to meet some dynamic Ghanaians working to solve some of these problems, and that can be pretty inspiring.”