COD Offers Writing Trip to West Africa Summer 2017

College of DuPage is hosting an immersive writing and composition trip to Ghana in West Africa from Wednesday, July 12 to Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017.

According to Assistant Professor of English Trina Sotirakopulos, the trip will provide students with a unique opportunity to explore a country rich with history, culture, art and inspiration.

"The Ghanaian people use an adinkra symbol, 'sankofa,' which loosely means, 'It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten,'" said Sotirakopulos. "This trip symbolizes just that - a return to discover that which we have forgotten - how to live in a land that is untouched by the pressures of American society."

During the trip, participating students will stay at the Aba House, an artist's residency, while gathering and interpreting original field research through interviewing local villagers and observing local customs. They will learn to make handmade journals with local children, examine the cultural symbolism of adinkra - decorative symbols that express traditional wisdom - and compile stories with award-winning writer and editor Sotirakopulos, who publishes under the name Trina Sotira. In addition, the students will travel to the sprawling street markets in Accra, visit a fantasy coffin maker and visit a bead maker's residence. The students will also have an opportunity for optional excursions, including a tour of nearby Cape Coast castles used in the slave trade.

"I cannot wait to travel to Ghana, a country I have never visited, with students as we write about our experiences together," Sotirakopulos said. "I am also looking forward to the unique opportunity to teach with Kate Donohue, a psychotherapist from San Francisco, who is meeting us there to share her knowledge of storytelling through interpretive dance."

The trip will also coincide with Ghana's celebration of 60 years of independence.

"Ghana's movement for independence was led by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, a man who was born in Ghana, educated in America and the UK, and later returned to bring freedom and justice to Ghana," she said. "Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes about Nkrumah's fight for freedom, noting how he was jailed for nearly a year after speaking out against the government. This land carries our history, from Dr. King to W.E.B. Du Bois, who chose Ghana as his final resting place."

For more information about this trip, please contact Sotirakopulos at (630) 942-2177 or sotirakopulost@cod.edu. To register for this 3-hour credit course, contact the Field Studies/Study Abroad office at (630) 942-2356.

College of DuPage is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Serving approximately 27,000 students each term, College of DuPage is the largest public community college in the state of Illinois. The College grants nine associate degrees and offers more than 170 career and technical certificates in over 50 areas of study.