Dr. Lauretta Byars, vice president of institutional relations and public services at PVAMU, and Dr. Kwaku Addo, associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Kentucky, held a forum which introduced a new Ghana Study Abroad Program Wednesday, Sept. 21, in the J.B. Coleman Library, and showcased their first trip to Ghana which took place this past summer.Byars, who came to PV about two years ago from the University of Kentucky after serving 32 years there saw fit for PV to have a study abroad program that traveled to Africa. While at the UK she and Addo began a program that would allow students to gain scholarships and credit to study abroad. Before the program was able to take off, Byars came to PV, but not wanting to disappoint the students at UK, she proposed the idea to Dr. Wright and other supporters to start a study abroad program to Africa at Prairie View.
For interested students and faculty, Byars began to hold informative sessions during the spring semester of 2005 so the group could get better educated. Discussions included everything from the geography to the type of hotels where they would reside. Byars felt it was important for those taking the trip to be as familiar with Ghana as possible before arriving on the country’s soil. The sessions were also an opportunity to explain why Ghana was chosen for the first trip abroad. Among those reasons was that Ghana is an English speaking country, one of the Africa’s friendliest countries, and this was also Dr. Addo’s homeland.
Byars and Addo were accompanied by four students (Nichol Allen, Rebecca Williams, Naomi Owuor, and Delores Guillory), and Dr. A. Stanberry, Rev. Clarence Talley, and Tyra Metoyer. While in Ghana they participated in many tours, visited Ghanaian educational facilities, took part in drumming workshops, and much more.
Byars attributes all the hard work and purpose of forming this program to this fact: “The world has been made smaller through TV and is so much bigger than how we see it. It is important for students to study abroad because the experience will give them a different and broader way of thinking. “Students will be able to gain a better understanding of issues and become more informed individuals.”
Byars said that it will take the interest of eight students for the trip to Ghana to take place again in the summer of 2006.
Applications can be found in Woolfolk, room 102 and information can also be reached at ext. 4024 and 4824.