James Madison University

Psychology Student Spends Summer Teaching in Ghana

As a Psychology major at James Madison University, Junior Laura Goodwyn always had hopes of visiting Africa , but mass-media images of Africa as a scary place discouraged such an adventurous move. 

When the opportunity arose through a Study Abroad Program in Ghana announced in the Psychology Email News, something inside told her to go for it.  Laura’s main obstacle remained getting her parents to agree with her decision to go to Africa for a month.  Her passion for the trip finally convinced her parents. She says, “I felt like the most important issues that were going to come about within the next 10 to 20 years had to do with Africa.”

With about eighteen other JMU students, all from different majors, Laura departed June 10 for Ghana.   Flying in that night, she says that she was surprised to see bright lights illuminating Accra, the capital city of Ghana.   “I was actually really ignorant about what Ghana was going to be like before I left. I thought it was going to be no houses -just shacks and jungles - just because that’s our perception as Americans of Africa,” she says.   Many of the students were surprised by the degree of industrialization of the country. Many were pleased to discover that their living accommodations were comfortable, and had many conveniences similar to what they expected to find in America. Although Laura admits that the students remained very sheltered because they were living in hotels, the group, led by Dr. Owusu-Ansah, was immersed in Ghanaian culture through classes on history and society that they took at the University of Ghana.

One specific lecture, “Mental Health in Ghana,” particularly intrigued Laura as she was able to apply her background in psychology.  She says, “There’s a huge stigma still in Ghana about mental health.  It’s kind of a battle to get people to recognize it and to actually go seek help.”  From the lecture, the students discovered the lack of mental health resources available to the average Ghanaian.  Laura says that this can be traced back to the Ghanaian’s traditional beliefs, which suggests that spells and witchcraft are the cause of mental ailments.  While these ideas are widely accepted within the country, JMU students found this view of mental health difficult to grasp.  “It’s kind of hard because you want to have the goal not to impose your beliefs on other people, but at the same time you’d like to be able to have a hand in helping people that need help,” Laura states.

PHOTO: Laura with group of students in Ghana

Laura with a group of her students in Ghana

Laura’s desires to help people were satisfied by her weekly visits to the Glona Academy, a local school for underprivileged children in Ghana.  While she says that Glona was her favorite part of the program, she admits that it came as somewhat of a challenge.  Laura says, “Half the time my partner and I would go into school that day and one of the guys in charge of the school would come down and say, ‘Do math,’ and that’s all that we would get and we would do Math and do something that we thought that they could do.”  Basic tasks were complicated by communication difficulties. In particular, the Ghanaian children had trouble understanding the accents of the American Students. Laura recalls their unsuccessful attempts at a spelling bee, in which the children were unable to understand the words that they were being asked to spell.

All in all, Laura considers the trip an overall success.  “I don’t think there’s anyone that would go there and not leave with a small sense of wanting to go back to change something and help in some way.  I think we get lost in our studies here…in the short-term goals that we need to graduate, we need to find a job and what am I going to do as a psych major to make money,” she says.  For Laura, the trip has given her an appreciation for the “rich and unparalleled culture” that she was able to experience firsthand in Ghana.