Beginning in the Fall of 2008, the School of Education at SUNY Geneseo sent its first group of teacher candidates to Ghana for a student teaching experience at the Village of Hope, an orphanage and school for children (mostly orphan) in Fetteh, a rural community in West Africa.  The program has evolved over the past few years and includes a 7-week student teaching placement in Kumasi, the largest city in Ashanti, Ghana.  Candidates stay at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the alma mater of the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan.

The program includes a focused student teaching placement with scheduled seminars along with cultural visits and excursions in Ghana to bring meaning to this international student teaching experience.  In the Fall of 2013 a group of 7 teacher candidates from SUNY Geneseo will be joined by 3 graduate school candidates from The University at Albany (SUNY) under the direction of Dr. Cheryl Kreutter from SUNY Geneseo.  The program will run from October 26 through December 6 with student teaching placements in KNUST Basic School as well as other local schools.  Evening seminars will address a variety of topics drawing on candidates' daily work in their classrooms and providing time to reflect on the similarities and differences between education in Ghana and the U.S. Upon arrival in Accra, Ghana's capital city, the group will head to Kumasi for orientation and a campus tour. Excursions and cultural events planned during their stay in Ghana include several cultural visits/events such as Mole National Park, Kumasi's craft villages, cultural evenings, drumming lessons, the King's Palace and Cultural Centre, local markets, Lake Bosuntwe, a cocoa farm, the School of Education at University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle, the beach, Kakum National Park (for a canopy walk), and visits to cultural centers in Accra.

Ghana is located in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean.  It is roughly the size of Oregon, with a population of 23 million people.  A former British colony, Ghana was the first African nation to achieve independence from a colonial power, and it has had a stable democratically elected system of government since 1992.  Many African languages are spoken in Ghana, but English is the official language of business and government.  Though endowed with a wealth of natural resources, Ghana remains a low-income country.  The current government is committed to achieving middle-income status by 2020.