For Sixth Summer, Lagim Tehi Tuma Fellowship Offers Students Unique Partnership Opportunity in Ghana

Lagim Tehi Tuma (“Thinking Together” in Dagbani) is a Bi-Co fellowship program with the community of Dalun, Ghana, that combines intensive team-building, collaborative study, language learning, and internships to foster dialogue about the role of formal and informal education in postcolonial understandings of culture, power, history, and learning.

This year’s Bi-Co fellows were Ian Ogalla '21 from Haverford College and Bryn Mawr students Titi Bekele '19, Rihana Oumer '19, Avery McNair '19, and Maria Vivanco '19.

Following home- and campus-based preparation, the fellows spent their seven weeks in Ghana in program-wide activities including language study, academic and reflective discussions, and committee work, as well as more specific internships either working in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, at a community radio station, at a community computer center, or with a local cultural group.

Michelle Fleuriot '18 returned this summer as student coordinator having completed the program last summer as a fellow. Michelle enhanced the program’s "Black is Beautiful" initiative, with, among other things, a screening and discussion of the film Black Panther in the Dalun Youth House. She also conducted research on how women teachers in an area primary school integrate work and mothering.

The Bi-Co students are joined in the fellowship by students from the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana.

“It's a game changer for our students to work with UDS students who come from all parts of Ghana—not all from the North— as they are often learning about the cultural scene and languages of the Northern Region along with our students,” says Program Coordinator and Professor of Education Alice Lesnick. “It makes for a rich, complex, polyglot conversation all summer long."

Funding for the fellowships at Bryn Mawr is provided through LILAC. Those wishing to apply for the program in the summer of 2019 should look for information later in the fall semester.