Duquesne University Enters Student Exchange with Ghana

The U.S. Department of State has awarded a $350,000 grant to Duquesne University’s School for Leadership (SLPA) for a student exchange with a school in Ghana.
Dean of SLPA, Dr. Dorothy Basett says 20 Ghanaians will come to Pittsburgh for four weeks in the summer of 2010 to study the environmental impact of Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in western Pennsylvania and the mountain top removal of coal in West Virginia.
Basett says 20 Americans, not necessarily students, but rather “people on the pathway to success,” will travel to Ghana for four weeks during the summer of 2011. They will study land management practices regarding oil extraction off the Ghanaian coast. They will attempt to find different ways to protect the environment and the people while retaining economic benefits. Basett says SLPA is hoping the students will form an understanding that “not all the best practices come from the United States.”
Basett says the school in Ghana and Duquesne University were chosen for this student exchange because parallels can be drawn between the environmental and economic ramifications facing both regions. Due to the 5,400 mile difference, students can find ways to deal with matters in a different perspective.
Basett hopes that both groups can go back to their home countries with the strategies that they learned and apply them to their own environment.