Posts

Showing posts from 2016
Image
Peer Partner   The International Programmes Office (IPO) pairs visiting students with Ghanaian students who are in excellent academic standing and are of good behaviour , as peer partners to enhance cross cultural experiences. The IPO launched this programme in order to ensure that the international students integrate properly in the university and the country at large. As part of their activities, they go on city and campus tours, and attend events that display our rich Ghanaian culture including weddings, funerals and festivals. They also assist with airport pickup and drop-off, orientations, durbars and the annual International Week celebrations. Peer partners are carefully selected and interviewed by staff of IPO before they are assigned the role. Why Peer Partners The purpose of providing a peer partner is to help welcome the International students and affirm their decision to join the University of Ghana. A peer partner helps to reduce the initial conf

PROFILE: Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins

Image
Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins Professor Ama de-Graft Aikins is a social psychologist with a primary interest in experiences and representations of chronic physical and mental illnesses and Africa's chronic non-communicable disease (NCD) burden. Her current collaborative research focuses on diabetes and obesity among Ghanaians in Ghana and Europe, food beliefs and practices among Ghanaians in Ghana and the US, and community-based cardiovascular (CVD) and mental health interventions in Ghana. She is also conducting independent longitudinal research on diabetes experiences in Accra. She teaches graduate courses in Psychology, the Philosophy of the Social Sciences and Qualitative Research Methods at the University of Ghana. She has supervised graduate theses in Social Psychology, Social Policy, Public Health and Population Studies at the University of Ghana, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, New York

Ghana is not just a place, it is a feeling!!!!

Image
          In the spring of 2014, I decided to do a semester abroad with my university through the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP). While many of my classmates were submitting applications to study abroad in London, Madrid and Paris, I decided to pursue the road less taken. In my heart, I knew I was destined for Africa. But as vast as it is, I had no idea where exactly to start. At the time, EAP provided programs in Botswana, Ghana and Egypt. By the time I decided I wanted to study abroad, I’d already missed the deadline to apply for the Botswana program and the Egypt program was limited to certain majors. So, Ghana it was! A few weeks later, I received my acceptance letter to study at the University of Ghana, Legon and I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. But as the pre-departure process began I would soon be filled with doubt from external sources. As I informed family members and friends of my study/travel plans, those feelings of excitement quic