Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Ghana 2006

In four days, Tanesha White and Meredith Poff (thats me!) will be embarking on a journey around Ghana. We have about $1400 for curriculum based textbooks, and a few hundred pounds of supplies. For the first 2 weeks of the trip, we will travel with Professor Gail Dela Pianna all over the country, and then for about 4 days we will be located in Accra. The school that NYU study abroad in Ghana picked out for ASAP and for their own service project is called La Yahoushua Primary and Secondary school. They have a heavily underfunded Primary school, and about 500 students in total. This school will be the recipient of this year's collection of supplies and books, and during the 2 weeks of travel we will be able to assess the feasibility of doing future projects in other various parts of Ghana. Tanesha and I are thrilled to be representatives for ASAP, the US, and Miami U. - especially because Ghana is such an amazing country to visit.

During the course of the semester, we brought in a speaker (arnold zack), we showed a documentary (the peacekeepers), we secured a scholarship for 2 years, and worked with other various organizations to bring a more culturally diverse and aware atmosphere to Miami's campus (i hope).

As president, my goals for next semester include:

- focusing recruitment on people who have a passion for African affairs
- bringing in 2 Lost Boys of Sudan
- inspiring as many as possible with our trip debriefing and buffet
- contacting another University and perhaps starting an ASAP chapter there (OSU, UC, Dayton???)
- working more closely with the NYU chapter to share ideas and energy
- create a more concrete process of sending students to Africa, and perhaps try a new country if the contacts we have seem safe and reliable
- host a lecture at Hall Auditorium (Dan Mozena)
- smoothly transitioning an effective executive board who is committed and capable of steering the organization towards sustainable growth and keeps the spirit alive

I truly believe that these goals are attainable with the help of all of ASAP's members and supporters. If anyone has any feedback, let me know pleeeaaasseeeeee kthanx