The 2009 Ghana STARS Conference

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6/29/09
I’d have to say that this was a pretty amazing week. There are two things in particular that made this week so great. The first thing was a successful STARS Conference with minimal problems. The second thing was the outstanding performances of the USA Men’s National team that took them to the final of FIFA’s Confederations Cup.
I guess I’ll start with the STARS Conference. After all the preparations it was exciting to actually get the conference underway. There were a total of 60 students that participated in the leadership conference from 30 schools from 9 different regions in Ghana. All the PCVs arrived at KNUST on Sunday with their students. The participants were broken into 6 groups of 10 and each group also had a junior group leader and 2 group leaders. The junior group leaders were form 3 students that were participants in last year’s STARS Conference. The group leaders were compiled of a male and female PCV for each group. As I mentioned a while ago, I was asked to be one of the group leaders and therefore took part in all the sessions at the conference. The biggest benefit of being a group leader was that I got to stay in the dorms at KNUST, while all the other PCVs that were helping out had to spend the night at the Peace Corps sub-office every night.
Each of the five days of the conference had a different theme. Monday was Youth Leadership Day, Tuesday was HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Wednesday was Careers Day, Thursday was Tertiary Education Day, and Friday was Guest Speaker Day. Of all the speakers we had planned for the conference only one cancelled, but we were able to fill the time with other activities. Naturally, there were a few minor snags along the way, but nothing catastrophic. If you would like to learn more about STARS or read personal experiences from students you can go to www.starsconfernce.com or check out the blog at www.starsconference.blogspot.com
Personally, I had a blast at the conference. The students were the best and brightest from their schools and it showed. Whether doing team building activities, having discussions, listening to speakers, or doing Q&A the students were always engaged. Each night there was an entertainment program of some kind. The different entertainment programs were, dramas (skits), debates, a talent show, movie night, and jams (a dance). I was thoroughly surprised how extroverted most of the students were. Many of the students went all out in the dramas and at the talent show. Most of the acts at the talent show were songs and the vast majority of them were all religious. The students weren’t nervous or embarrassed about singing in front of a room full of people and the audience didn’t mock the performers when they made mistakes or hit the wrong notes.
As it turns out, the timing of the STARS Conference worked out perfectly with school. Originally, the conference was planned for the first week in June, but we had to move it because of the arrival and vision quest for the new volunteers. Then we planned to have it during the second week in June, but we had to move it because it coincided with graduations at KNUST. We ended up having it in the third week of June and it overlapped with mid-term break so I only missed 2 days of school. I gave my mid-term exam to one of the other teachers and he gave it to my classes during to 2 days I was gone so I’m not really behind on anything as far as school goes. For some reason, the mid-term break is longer than usual and with July 1 being Republic Day in Ghana the students will end up having 6 school days off. Technically the students are supposed to return for class this coming Thursday and Friday, but I a assume many of them will stay at home to extend the break a little longer.
The week was great because of the STARS Conference, but the icing on the cake was the US National Team’s performances in the Confederations Cup. I couldn’t tell you how many calls and text messages I got this week from the teachers in my school to congratulate me on for the way the USA was playing. I’ll admit that we had a little help from lady luck to get the cards to fall just right for the USA to advance to the semis. One of the PCVs who hadn’t been watching the tourney asked me how the USA was doing on Sunday, and I explained that mathematically, we had a chance to advance, but that the likelihood was slim at best. I said that IF the USA beat Egypt 3-0 AND IF Brazil beat Italy 3-0, THEN we would advance. When the words came out of my mouth I honestly didn’t think it would happen. At the end of the day, the USA did what it had to do to advance and with a little help from Brazil we found ourselves in the semis against Spain, the #1 team in the world. Again I didn’t have high expectations, but the world was shocked once again when the USA took down Spain 2-0. The dream continued into the final against Brazil when the USA took a 2-0 lead into halftime. Unfortunately the dream came to an end when Brazil came back in the second half to win 3-2. As an American abroad, watching the US National Team accomplish what the rest of the world thought was impossible made me extremely proud to be an American. I’ll never doubt the US National Team again, and I can’t wait to see what they do in South Africa in less than a year from now.
God Bless the USA!!!

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