Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana

The Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School in Ghana (coessing.org) is an international collaboration aimed at building capacity in oceanographic and environmental sciences in Ghana.  Summer schools have been held every summer from 2015 through 2019, and will continue as long as are able to procure funding.  The summer schools include lectures, labs, field trips to the beach and port, a short trip on a vessel, tutorials on programming in Python, and research projects. 

African participants in the Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School include students and faculty, government officials and private sector professionals from across Ghana and other African countries, especially Nigeria.  The school has led to a University of Ghana PhD project in collaboration with University of Michigan (U-M) and NASA, and a Ghanaian PhD studentship at University of Southern Mississippi.

US participants include faculty (12 total), undergraduate students (7 total), and  graduate students (7 total) from U-M and several other US institutions.  We have also brought two European scientists to the school.  Some of the US students have participated in multiple years.  The US students have participated in various ways, including giving lectures, teaching labs, mentoring research projects, taking photos, maintaining the school website, giving tutorials on computer programming, and developing sustainability case studies.  An Oregon State University student wrote a Masters' thesis on quantifying the impact of the school on both US and African participants which can be found at:  (https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/1n79h987m). 

Testimonials from some US and African participants on the impact of the school can be found at https://coessing.org/testimonials/.