I was a participant in the Ghana program in the summer of 2008, as a senior who only needed a few credits to graduate and no idea what I was going to do with my life after school. This was the beginning of the great recession, and my entire graduating class was terrified about finding work. While my friends struggled back home, I was placed as an intern at one of the most popular radio stations in Ghana. The station put me on the Parliament Beat, where I observed and reported on the Ghanaian Parliament from the press box. Incredible doesn’t begin to describe seeing my story, handwritten in English on a piece of paper, translated live on Ghanaian radio waves.

The amount I learned just from navigating to work everyday would have been enough, but Professor Steeves added so much with her knowledge and experience. I was in a foreign country where I stood out as the minority for the first time in my life. I saw an entirely different perspective. It made me reevaluate almost everything I had ever been taught. What’s important and what happiness looks like. What is struggle and the importance of education. How difficult the simple things can be without a functioning system, and how beautiful kindness is in any situation. And Professor Steeves was always there to support, education, and show us new things.

I could and should write a book on how my life has benefited from Professor Steeves’ and the Media in Ghana program. I vividly remember the exact moment my life was sent on a new path of maturity, growth and the pursuit of knowledge. Which I had never expected happen. It started with a simple dinner where Professor Steeves’ asked me what I planned to do after I graduated. I had no idea. Professor Steeves’ response was to introduce me to her connections in Ghana and find a job for me, all before our food was brought to the table.

The study abroad program was only supposed to last six weeks, but through Leslie’s connections, I was able to secure a job with a prominent Ghanaian Member of Parliament, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. I ended up extending my trip from six weeks to 14 months living and working in Ghana for Dr. Nduom as he ran a campaign to be elected as President of Ghana. Crazy. This took me all over Ghana as I watched and assisted in Dr. Nduom’s campaign. Dr. Nduom didn’t win the election, he placed third, but I was able to experience a peaceful change of power in an African country. That is not something that happens as often as it should.

After the election, I stayed in Ghana as Manager of one of Dr. Nduom’s radio stations where I led a team of radio personalities and journalists. While my friends back home struggled to get unpaid internships, I’d participated in a National Presidential Campaign, written a business plan to expand Dr. Nduom’s media company and built two radio stations in Ghana that are still running today. I’d also made friends and had experiences that forever change me.

I can never thank Professor Steeves’ enough for creating the Media in Ghana program and for her dedication to her students. She is everything that education should be about. She has demonstrated a true passion for knowledge that can’t be read in a book. Knowledge that isn’t already known by everyone else. Knowledge that comes from taking risks and going headfirst into the unknown. Knowledge that can only come from the pursuit of new experiences and sharing them with others. I only wish everyone at the University of Oregon could have an experience like the students who go on Professor Steeves’ Ghana Program.

If you have the opportunity, take the trip of a lifetime and experience Media in Ghana.