MPA students help bring electricity to schoolchildren in Ghana
February 20, 2009
On a recent Marriott School field study to Ghana, BYU master of public administration students teamed with a charity to provide schools with merry-go-rounds that convert children’s energy into electricity. The electricity powers rechargeable lanterns that light the children’s studies at night.
The charity, Empower Playgrounds, asked the MPA students to indentify prime locations for five merry-go-rounds from among 18 villages.
The students’ work began where Empower Playground’s first merry-go-round had been installed weeks earlier by a team of BYU engineering students. During their two weeks in Ghana, the MPA students talked to parents, teachers, and students in each village to gauge how the equipment would be accepted.
Jordan Wright, a second-year MPA student from Pleasant Grove, Utah, says of the process, “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; what works in one city may not work in another.”
Jeff Thompson, field study director and assistant professor, says that poverty is pervasive in Ghana, “but the people are greatly concerned that their children get a chance to learn.”
Aaron Miller, a part-time faculty member who also accompanied the students, says of field study, “It gives students the chance to take the skills they learn in their program, such as quantitative and qualitative assessment, and put them to use in a very meaningful way.”
