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The Africa studies program held the Acacia Seminar Monday night. Doris Payne, the program’s director, hosted the seminar, which featured four students who spoke about their study abroad internship experience in Africa.
Although the University currently does not offer an African studies major, a minor is offered. The minor requires 28 credits of core and elective credits as well as a year of study in an African language or a one term internship in Africa.
Before the presentation began, Payne spoke about some of the options students have for going abroad.
“Students can go anywhere, from a summer program abroad, to a semester, to an entire academic year. We have a variety of different programs that are offered. Anywhere from going to a university in Africa and directly enrolling and taking classes with other African students, to doing your own independent research while you’re there, to doing a project where you’re off on your own for a month,” she said.
Additionally, the African Studies program recently added a brand-new internship in Tanzania.
“(It’s) a four week program at a primate conservation school at the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. It’s supposed to be one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Students go there and they’ll be studying primates with an anthropology professor. You don’t have to be an anthropology major to participate,” Payne said.
The speakers at the event showed photos and discussed their experiences in Morocco, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.
Jacob Taylor, a senior studying French and history at the University, recently spent nine months studying French and Arabic while interning at a nonprofit in Rabat, Morocco. During his presentation, he described some of the challenges a foreigner in Morocco might face.
“Getting through a city can be kind of an adventure. You really have to rely on word of mouth. I expected to be able to go there, I wanted to be prepared when I got there. But really, you have to go there, you have to talk to people and you have to find out what you’re doing on the ground,” Taylor said.
Giulia Notari, a senior double-majoring in political science and planning, public policy and management, went to South Africa on an IE3 internship where she worked with the South Africa Media and Gender Institute.
Over the course of her presentation, she described everything from cultural intricacies to getting around on “mini-buses” to an opportunity she had to witness a South African trial.
The African studies program, in conjunction with the University’s World Language Academy currently offers years one through three of Swahili. Due to student demand, the African studies program is currently looking to hire a full-time professor to teach Swahili for the 2012-13 year.
“This coming year we’ve been approved to have a search for a regular Swahili (professor). It’s a student-demand thing, primarily,” Payne said.