For 16 School of Journalism and Communication students, school did not end with their final exams. Two graduate students and 14 undergraduates joined professors Leslie Steeves and Ed Madison for a six-week study abroad program in Ghana.
Each year the SOJC selects a handful of students for internships across various media outlets in the city of Accra. The internships are provided in conjunction with the Accra-based "Media in Ghana" program at the University of Ghana School of Communication, and offer participants the opportunity to learn firsthand about Ghana’s media, as well as the country’s history, culture and development challenges.
The program began in 1999 in partnership with the University of Kansas. In 2002, UO journalism students outnumbered Kansas students six to one, and the Kansas partnership dissolved in 2003. The UO journalism school established its own program in 2004.
Steeves, who has led the program since its inception, places each student at an internship specific to their major, whether that is journalism, electronic media, public relations, advertising or communication studies.
“As media are increasingly globalized, experiencing media in a very different cultural context broadens our students' perspective,” Steeves said. “Being immersed in internships quickly shows them that the principles and perspectives they learn in the J-school aren't necessarily universal or easily transferable.”
Senior Jeff Mercado, who is studying broadcast journalism, lived with the other 15 students in house in Ghana’s capital, Accra, not far from the University of Ghana campus.
“What has been challenging is separating my preconceived ideas about Africa and learning to adopt Ghanaian culture for what it is,” Mercado said. “My favorite thing so far has been speaking with people. Everyone here is so welcoming and full of joy.”
Mercado recently contributed to the Ghana Blog — where the students share their travel experiences — offering a multimedia piece on his first day at work at Metro TV in Accra.
Senior Madeline Culhane’s recent blog post about trying to get to her internship at Lentis Advertising captured the challenges of living and working abroad:
“Julianne [Parker] perfectly summed up the stages of studying abroad: there’s the honeymoon stage at the beginning, when everything is so new and exciting. Then after a week or two, you hit a wall and between the humidity, bug bites, power outages and threat of traveler’s sickness, the novelty begins to wear off. After a few days of irritation and complaining, you eventually get over it and settle back in. You never quite reach that honeymoon stage again but you relax into a comfortable routine.”
- by Casey Pechan, PR, '14, from an article for School of Journalism and Communication