Laurier-Ghana Partnership

Laurier’s student mobility partnership with Ghanaian organizations entails a bidirectional movement of students. Laurier undergraduates have completed summer internships in Ghana during each year of the program, and (with the exception of 2020) Ghanaian graduate students have spent a term at Laurier. Other components of the partnership involve Laurier graduate students spending a semester at the University of Ghana doing research or taking courses. One University of Ghana student was funded to pursue a PhD program in Social Work at Laurier, two faculty and one staff member from Ghanaian universities have visited Laurier, and several Laurier faculty and staff have visited Ghana.

Tshepo’s involvement in the partnership became formal in 2012 when Dr. Robert Ame became Director of the Tshepo Institute and made the partnership one of his flagship programs for the Institute during his tenure from 2012-2014. Since the arrival of the first group of Ghanaian graduate students at Laurier, Tshepo faculty have each year been involved as supervisors of their theses and have organized a graduate seminar each fall for the students to present the work they accomplished at Laurier. Tshepo is also involved in organizing a Ghana Cultural Night to celebrate the achievements of the partnership and the Laurier and Ghanaian students involved. This event culminated in the Fall 2019 when Ghana’s High Commissioner to Ghana based in Ottawa served as the guest of honor, the first ever official visit of a Ghanaian High Commissioner to Laurier.

Overall, by the end of the current round of funding, we estimate that about 78 Laurier undergraduate students and 22 Ghanaian graduate students would have participated in the partnership.

Ghanaian Graduate Students (2015-2019):

2019: Afua Addae-Sakyi, Victor Agyei-Yeboah, Benjamin Baba Ayamga, Anthony Oduro, and Alexander Amponsah.

2018: Gloria Asare and Rita Sottie

2017: Deladem Anku and Sylvia Kotey

2016: Edwin Adjei and Nana Akua Dankwa

2015: Serwaa Afrifa and Petronela Ocloo.