In January 2017 economics professor Michelle Naples joined education professor Jerry Petroff traveling with TCNJ students to Ghana to study both education and economic development for women in the country. Working with an international NGO, professors Naples and Petroff have helped students gain very real experiences in environments where education and starting a business are anything but routine.
Professor Naples remarked, “I am very proud of this group. It’s been an amazing opportunity for them to apply what they’ve learned in the business program, as well as in this course and other gender courses, to real-world economic development for women. And they have stepped up to the plate. This has been the best community-based learning experience I could have imagined for them and for the course. The Director of Beyond Aid is so very grateful to our students for their help and support. Simultaneously, she is our program director and has made students’ learning experience top-notch.”
The Ghana Program was centered at the University of Ghana at Legon, on the northern edge of the coastal city of Accra, and included include visits to: Cape Coast Castle, the Kakum Rain Forest, the Aburi Botanical Gardens, and more. Students were enrolled in either ECO 270 / WGS 270 / INB 250: Women, Gender and Economic Development or SPE 324 / SPED 626 / Independent Study in Special Education: Theory and Practice in the Education of Students with Complex Disabilities. Read more about study abroad options.
Like the Facebook page TCNJ in Ghana.
Read coverage of this trip in Citi FM 97.3 FM, “US delegation in Ghana to offer training on intellectual disabilities.”