Marissa Ramirez

Marissa is a senior at Thiel College studying secondary education with a focus in history; she will be graduating within the next few semesters with the hopes of being a high school teacher. During her time with Vira Heinz, Marissa decided to travel to the continent of Africa and explore the Greater Accra region of Ghana. She enrolled at the University of Ghana Legon and took a variety of classes such as African History and Cultures along with African Dance. Marissa learned a variety of information about the western part of African and learned three social dances that the Ghanaian people perform. Although she was taking classes, there were other activities that the university had offered the international students to do while being abroad. Marissa was able to go to the Volta region of Ghana where she climbed the tallest mountain in Ghana, fed monkeys in the forests, and learned about the culture. Another trip that Marissa took involved the Eastern region where the slaves castles were located which was one of her favorite parts of the trip exploring the historical side of the country.

Marissa was also able to make time for community service for the community that was outside of the university. She helped with the program Play and Learn. This was a program focused on helping children by tutoring them with their academics and teaching them soccer. It was a lot of fun for her since she plays soccer at her home college and the children were excited a lot because they all want to play soccer when they go to college. It was a fun experience to learn about the local children around the university and Marissa was able to help raise money for their program during her time there. Marissa is excited to take what she learned from her travels and bring them back to her students when she becomes a teacher. She would like to teach her students about the importance of college and the opportunities of studying abroad to learn about cultures outside of their own.