Sustainable Education Ghana
The mission of Sustainable Education Ghana (SEG) is to provide a population of girls with a nurturing setting for academic and vocational training with ecological stewardship at its focal point. The students we aim to impact with this school are generally part of poor communities who do not have access to an educational environment that inspires them to work hard toward ambitious goals.
The design of this school fulfills CUSD’s mission of advancing economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The focus on agriculture will teach students about economic and environmental sustainability through the development of local farmland for educational uses. The schoolhouse and wider campus will engage the people of Sogakope by hosting events and markets, creating a symbiosis between the school and local community. Finally, this project will promote cultural understanding through the facilitation of open discussions in multifunctional classroom settings. Ultimately, the Sogakope schoolhouse will be an emblem of educational opportunity, human-centered design, and sustainability for the eastern Ghanaian region. Our sustainable building model will be scalable and able to be replicated by other industries in the region. In this way, the project will create an impact that reverberates exponentially beyond the Sogakope schoolhouse.
An investment in Sustainable Education Ghana means supporting a model for environmental sustainability and women’s empowerment. Our project aims to serve as a model for future similar initiatives, bringing sustainability to a region where it can make a real impact. Helping young girls attain a superior academic and vocational education will also create a positive impact by preparing the next generation to pursue successful lives and give back to their communities. Furthermore, this project has been exposing engineers, architects, and designers to the unique symbiosis between human-centered design and Systems Engineering, an understanding that will equip them to lead successful and impactful careers in the future.
Under the mentorship of older members, advisors, and alumni who have worked on CUSD projects in South Africa, Nicaragua, and Ithaca, the history of our organization’s impact and success makes our project a reliable one to invest in.
The Sustainable Education Ghana project seeks support to empower young women, create a regional precedent for sustainable design, and continue providing an invaluable learning experience to a diverse array of students at Cornell. We are currently accepting both monetary and in-kind donations to procure the materials necessary to construct this sustainable schoolhouse. We also welcome your feedback and advice as we move forward with this project. To learn more, please visit our website (http://cusd.cornell.edu/projects/seg/) or email Arielle Tannin at adt56@cornell.edu.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our organization, our partner, our mission, and our work.