Students of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) have had an interaction with an Associate Professor from the Integrative and African American Studies of Grand Valley State University (USA,) Dr. Jakia Marie, which centered on the experiences and opportunities of post graduate education in the USA.
The meeting was put together by the School of Sustainable Development (SDD) and held in the Auditorium, Multi-purpose Building on Wednesday, 5th July 2023 which aimed to guide the students in choosing postgraduate programmes on completion.
Dr. Marie, is the first female and also the second person to graduate with a Ph.D in Pan African Studies at the University of Louisvillee.
She shared her Ph.D. research with the students and discussed the expectations verses the experiences of Ghanaian American millennials in the USA. She said, almost everyone who comes to the USA between the ages of 4-20 years had unrealistic ideas about what living in the USA would be like from respondents, they thought there was a tree that produced dollars and thought money grew on trees in the USA because it was depicted as the land of milk and honey.
The study was exploring how individual experiences changed in private and public spaces. The main takeaways were every family maintained some Ghanaian traditions, primarily with food. Most of the second-generation Americans could not speak a Ghanaian language because their parents wanted them to assimilate to mainstream USA culture.
Dr. Jakia Marie who is also the Programmes Coordinator of African and African American Studies, indicated that choosing graduate programme requires choosing one that ignites passion, provides opportunity, funding and have Lecturers with a good reputation.
She gave the students some point to look out for in applying for schools abroad, they should choose institutions that offer to pay their tuition, seek advice from their Lecturers.
She said, graduate work can take a time frame of 2-6 years for completion, its challenging yet a rewarding experience when extra work is invested and every opportunity is taken seriously.
Dr Maria asked students to plan early and never give up. She said graduate work can be a long, difficult, and expensive process but there is the need for students to stay the course.