Blog posts written by the 2025 cohort.
By Milly Gamlen When I first came to Ghana I was so excited. I felt like even though my heritage is Nigerian, I would still feel somewhat closer to it by being on the right continent and only a few countries away. Too a degree I was right, but not in all the ways I Read More …
By Rachel Marty While AI has rapidly become a useful everyday tool for many, it is often criticized for issues related to reliability, lack of proper citation, and inherent biases. Recently, I was asked by my internship, the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), to explore how they could use AI to improve their workflows. Read More …
By Skylar DeBose It was the morning of Sunday, July 27. I woke up ready to climb the tallest mountain in Ghana. Just 24 hours earlier, our bus driver, Clement, drove us five hours northeast from East Legon, Accra, to the Volta Region. The night before our journey to Volta commenced, I struggled to sleep Read More …
By Megan Gignac I’ve never been out of the United States before this trip, so naturally, I came to Ghana expecting a lot of new experiences. Before coming here, I already knew I would stand out. I knew my long blonde hair, fair Irish skin, and American accent would make me visibly not from here. Read More …
By Noah Nelson One of the most crucial elements in effective state building is that of transit. Public, private, rail, road – each plays a role in the economy, connectivity, and functionality of the working state. In Ghana, my colleagues and I have seen (and used) many different modes of transportation as we have navigated Read More …
By Rachel Marty During recent field visits with the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), I had the opportunity to see firsthand how access to healthcare and traditional gender roles impact the lives and families in rural Ghana. ARHR is a network of local NGOs committed to improving sexual and reproductive health through a rights-based Read More …
By McKenzee Manlupig Wli falls. The experience was unreal—standing underneath the gushing tons of water falling from the sky, witnessing the hundreds of bats resting on the cliffside. You could feel the ground shake as the millions of gallons thundered down. We were visiting Volta for the weekend, a peaceful countryside. We asked a professor, Read More …
By Milly Gamlen This week was one of frustration for me. I was always raised to be optimistic, that it is right to carry through on commitments you make, but this was the week I began to question if there are exceptions to that rule. It’s week three of my internship and I feel like Read More …
By Kai Fontenot Full transparency, I’m someone who loves to stay up late and have fun. But this time, that wasn’t the plan. We had just gotten back to the hotel after a spectacular day at the waterfall. The car ride was long, the swim was refreshing, and dinner was amazing. Shoutout to whoever cooked Read More …
By Megan Gignac This week at my internship at Innova DDB, I was assigned to work with the media buying team called P2P. They are a smaller company, about 7 people, under the big parent company of Innova. Luckily, I have some media planning experience thanks to Senyo, whose media planning class I took last Read More …
By Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine Since my first day here, I’ve come across something that I’ve quite literally never experienced. For the first time in my life, I am identified as a white woman. And I don’t know how to feel about that. In Ghana, anyone who doesn’t look Black or Ghanaian is considered an “obroni,” or Read More …
By Everett Cento Going into my internship, I never expected to visit the Ghanaian court system, let alone the Supreme Court. However, during my second week, I had the opportunity to be on court duty. It sounded cool in theory, but I had no idea what I was really getting into. The courts were a Read More …
By Kalani Chai-Andrade I’m now three weeks in, and it has been a relentless grind. My days have started to blur together. Most of my time is spent riding in company vehicles or rideshares, writing, researching, photographing, and drinking water. When I finish, I come home, eat, sleep, and do it all again the next Read More …
By Skylar DeBose Obroni. An Akan word that quickly became familiar to my friends and me. Obroni means foreigner, often referring to a white person. Although I identify as Black, I have been called Obroni by strangers, merchants, and coworkers. I am, however, a foreigner. Despite my ancestral roots in Africa, this is my first Read More …
By Megan Gignac Hi friends! Here are some updates from my fourth week in Ghana. I hope you enjoy! After I got the first week of my internship under my belt, I was feeling confident and getting in the groove of corporate life in a new country. At the end of our long work week, Read More …