Five Oakton College students and alumni left the school’s Des Plaines campus on June 7 to study abroad in Ghana for three weeks.
The study abroad program in Ghana was created in 2022 by Global Studies Coordinator Katherine Schuster in collaboration with EDU Africa, which facilitates transformative learning journeys on the continent.
The students explored Cape Coast Castle, Volta Region, Ghana’s capital, and the University of Ghana Legon Campus. The group learned Ghanaian history, culture and literature from Ghana professors at the university.
Schuster has worked at Oakton Community College for 21 years and became the Global Studies coordinator in 2005.
“My overall goal has always been to try to get as many Oakton students as possible to have some kind of international experience,” she said. “It’s not typical, still in 2024, for students to study abroad on the continent of Africa. When I developed the study abroad program in Ghana, there was a lot of racism that came up. It took a village, but to make those relationships and work with colleagues is the key to being able to have successful programs.”
The students came back from Ghana on July 2. In an interview with the RoundTable, Oakton College alumnus Michael Jackson and current Oakton students Emmanuel Rayford, Ashley Dabney and Robert McRay explained how this study abroad program changed their lives.
Rayford, of Skokie, majors in business and loves exploring different cultures and parts of the world. He shared how Ghana gave him a life lesson through business.
“It’s helped my studies, because I think Ghana is a place where there’s a lot of resources and a lot of talent, but it seems like it’s not fully realized,” he said. “I feel like I have this little brainchild or this little idea that I have to think through. I don’t know how long it’s going to take. How can you know me as [part of the] American diaspora and help my African brothers use the resources that they have to better their lives? That’s something I think that could be achieved through business.”
Jackson, who graduated from Oakton in 2015, took the opportunity to do the study abroad program and left the United States for the first time. He experienced what he thought was the most important lesson he learned in Ghana.
“My biggest takeaway was that it is OK to be human,” Jackson said. “A lot of the stuff I was dealing with really didn’t matter. While I was there, there were moments where we would go to the beach [and be] sitting in the ocean and just take that moment and not worry about what tomorrow is or what next week is or what life is going to be like when I get home. I just was very present with myself and OK with me.”
Dabney, an Evanstonian majoring in nursing, said she realized she had ancestry in Ghana after researching African history for 10 years. She described a scene she said will stay with her.
“There was a young boy who couldn’t be any older than 7,” she said. “Instead of getting ready to go to school, he was out selling Q-Tips. That hurt me because he should be getting ready to go to school with his peers. You become more grateful and it will make you appreciate what you have way more by going. This is a lifelong experience I’ll never, ever forget.”
Robert McRay, an Evanston resident studying for a certificate to enable a human resources career, wanted to learn more about transatlantic slave trade. He heard from his pastor’s daughter, who had attended this program, that it was a life-changing experience and learned that the program will help him navigate his career.
“It threw me completely off my career. I went in with the intention of HR certification. I’m still doing that, but now I’m looking at ways to go back to Ghana and help in the areas where I feel like I might be able to help,” he said. “I’ve been telling people since I’ve been back, ‘My body is here, but part of my heart and part of my head is still there.’”
This year’s Ghana study abroad program was funded by Oakton College Educational Foundation and Oakton’s Student Government Association.
Oakton students explore Ghana is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.