Community Members Seek Financial Aid for Ghanaian CGP Student

By WRILEY NELSON
SPRINGFIELD CENTER

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Springfield Center has organized a GoFundMe page to raise financial assistance for a Ghanaian student who was admitted to SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program but who lacks funding. Enoch Bright Ampong, 28, is a museum docent at Elmina Castle, the oldest European building south of the Sahara. He was born and raised in the Central Region of the small West African country, a former British colony with a population of 34 million. He graduated with honors from Takoradi Technical University with a degree in tourism management. Ampong began giving tours at Elmina during an internship semester in 2016.

“I’m very proud to say that I have never gotten a bad review after my tour,” he reflected.

Elmina was built as a slave trading fort by Portuguese King João II in the 1480s and stands as a horrifying reminder of the four brutal centuries of the transatlantic slave trade. It was one of the primary depots where West and Central African captives were imprisoned and tortured before transshipment to the New World. Today, the castle is preserved as a Ghanaian national museum and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Monument.

Despite Ghana’s status as one of the strongest economies and states in West Africa, it can be very difficult for young people to find jobs. Ampong said that he usually makes about US$30.00 a month in a semi-official capacity as a tour guide during the season and otherwise relies on $3.00 per day doing hard labor at construction sites. From a young age, he has dreamed of finding a new life in the U.S. and of returning home to enrich Ghana.

“I had an African American English teacher in high school,” he recalled, “and her stories about America inspired me.”

“I realized that my life can only be better if I follow my heart,” he said, referring both to his passion for informative museums and his desire for a U.S. education. He dedicated himself to providing the best possible experience for museum visitors and has spent much of his free time for the past several years studying the history of the transatlantic slave trade.

Professor Peter Rutkoff, a CGP adjunct professor and summer Cooperstown resident, met Ampong on a tour at Elmina in August 2022 during one of his many research trips to Ghana.

“Elmina is a horrible place; even more horrible because the surroundings are so beautiful,” Rutkoff recalled. “The docent I met there, however, was wonderful and knowledgeable.”

Ampong said that he gave the tour group a 20-minute introduction and that Rutkoff praised him as “the best guide he’d come across in Ghana… he said my commentary bred unity without bias.”

Rutkoff gave Ampong his e-mail address and encouraged him to continue his museum education in Cooperstown. They have worked closely with CGP Director Professor Gretchen Sorin. SUNY Oneonta accepted Ampong into the two-year graduate program, but he is unable to pay tuition at the current level of financial aid. He plans to defer his acceptance and begin the program this year, hoping to find funding in the meantime.

CPG is one of the oldest museum studies graduate programs in the country. It was founded in 1964 by New York State Historical Association Director Louis C. Jones to provide intensive real-world training to future museum professionals. Located at SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown campus, in one of just a handful of buildings in the world specifically designed for museum studies, it offers programs specializing in science or history museums.

Throughout his communication with Iron String Press, Ampong was humble and repeatedly expressed his gratitude to CGP and to anyone able to help him.

“It is my aim to help establish one of the best museums in Ghana,” Ampong concluded, “to generate revenue for my country and to preach the gospel of unity amongst humanity so we never again perpetrate such injustice… I plead to anyone who reads my story to help me achieve my dream, and I know the Lord will surely reward their generations to come.”

Parishioners at St. Mary’s Episcopal in Springfield Center and at Cooperstown Baptist Church have already pledged funds to support Ampong’s CGP education, but further financial resources are still needed, as the goal is $56,000.00.Those wishing to make a tax-deductible donation can do so at https://www.gofundme.com/f/enoch-ampong-study-in-cooperstown.