Nicole in Ghana

Hi, I'm Nicole,

I’m currently in second year at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus pursuing a Specialist in Environmental Chemistry. I love art, ice cream and witty word play (alongside the environment, of course).
I love the perspectives my program has introduced me to and have noticed my own viewpoints changing. I thought that an international co-op experience would be the only way to really gain a global perspective of a global phenomenon, so I applied to be a part of the Students Without Borders community.

I've been selected for Project Officer with RAINs (http://rainsgha.org/)

RAINS is a local NGO with interest in the Girl Child Education in Tamale Ghana, I’ll be helping them with their vulnerability assessments with an environmental perspective. I’m incredibly excited to aid the communal development not only within an environmental context, but also through empowering them.

Normally the positions with Students Without Borders are volunteer experiences but I am incredibly lucky to also be a Queen Elizabeth Scholar. 

With this scholarship I am introduced into another community of passionate people striving to facilitate sustainable development. I am very excited and thankful to be offered this opportunity.

 Of course I’m nervous, moving away from home for the first time, living in a new country, on a continent that I’ve never been to.. but that’s part of the unifying experience that international travel comes with. I think I’m incredibly lucky to be supported by not only my friends and family here in Scarborough, but the community I’ll be joining in Tamale.

So here I enter the final stages to my placement, to a new country, and to a newer me. I got my visa in the mail and I'm halfway packed.

Here’s to leaving comfort zones and entering new places and absorbing new ideas and cultures. So I’ll see you in a week, Tamale!