Hello everyone. I am Khala Corley and I am a first generation college student from Fort Washington, MD. I am currently a junior Fashion Design and Merchandising. On campus, I have a show with the radio station, WXAC, and I participate in Fashion Lion, the fashion magazine on campus. Last spring, I studied abroad in Cape Coast, Ghana at the University of Cape Coast with CISabroad. While I was there as able to take business and African studies classes while experiencing West African culture and fashion.

When I first arrived at the University of Cape Coast, I realized that course registration would be a lot more confusing than how its done at Albright College. Instead of registering on an online portal, we had go to each department and get approval from the chair of each department and the let the Center for International Education, CIE, register us online. This process did not seem to difficult when it was introduced to us. But the professors had gone on strike the week that classes were supposed to start, so we could not get approval from anyone. Even though most, if not all of the American students like myself were constantly stressing out over the registration process, the Ghanain students constantly kept reassuring us to relax and that registering for courses late is completely normal there. CIE would make extensions for us if necessary and that we should just relax and enjoy Ghana before getting into any serious work. Almost a month later, I was able to complete course registration and start attending classes. I took courses in Accounting, Traditional African Dance, Ancient African Civilizations, and African Women in Colonial society.

One of the things I was most excited for was learning about the different African print fashions. The clothing industry is completely different from the one in the United States. When you go to buy new clothing in the U.S., you usually go to the nearest shopping mall where you can find tens of stores with clothes for almost any style and price range. In Cape Coast and other parts of Ghana, fabric vendors in town are about as common as clothing stores are in a mall. The place where I went countless times to buy fabric is King’s Street. King’s Street is a street near the Cape Coast slave castle and Oasis beach resort that extends for a few miles that has vendors selling everything you need from shoes and clothes to produce and kitchen appliances. One that one street alone you could probably find more than 30 fabric resellers and the official fabric store Woodin. I went to King’s Street at least once a week so I tried to buy fabric every time I went.

View from Elmina Slave Castle

It was possible to buy ready made clothing on King’s Cross. I learned from other Ghanaian students that the clothes that I could buy there was old clothing from the U.S Any excess clothing that we give to Goodwill and the Salvation Army is usually donated to clothing resellers in Africa. Another option was to find a seamstress and get clothing made. Finding a good seamstress was a little more difficult to find that a fabric vendor. Once you found one they were very reliable and affordable. The seamstress that I usually went to was right on campus in the science market. I was able to get a dress, a skirt and a shirt made for 100 Cedis which is equal to about twenty-five dollars. I did not want to get to many garments made because I planned on taking my fabric home and making clothes myself.

Other than shopping for fabric and attending my classes I was able to travel a little. I went to Kumasi at the end of March. One of my friends that I made while at UCC used to attend KNUST, another university in Kumasi. We went for Republic Hall which is when the Republic Hall threw a campus wide party with dancing, and food and clothing vendors. I also went to Busua, a beach resort for a weekend, Accra, the capital of Ghana for more shopping and site seeing, and Takoradi to see the beach.

Market in Kumasi

Studying abroad in Ghana was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I met so many new people from Ghana and the U.S. that I will never forget. I really have to thank the Gilman scholarship program for helping to fund my trip, because it would not have been possible without them. I learned so much about the culture, the food, and the fashion. I still keep in contact with a few people that I met during my time abroad and I hope to return with in the next few years. I appreciate this opportunity that I have been given and I will never forget it.

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Anomabo Beach Resort

Khala Corley

Class of 2018