Editorial of February 15, 2024
The Kindness of Strangers
Enoch Bright Ampong has a dream. Some 5,000 miles away, in the Republic of Ghana, he dreams of coming here to Otsego County to study at SUNY Oneonta’s revered Cooperstown Graduate Program.
Admission into the CGP program is highly competitive. Classes are generally comprised of about 25 students, a mix of history museum and science museum studies. The application process is multi-step. Students submit an online application through SUNY Oneonta, which includes an essay about their ideal museum and the role they hope to play, along with letters of recommendation from academic and professional references. Faculty review these materials and select applicants who then advance to the interview stage.
These interviews take place in person in Cooperstown during a weekend in late March, we are told. In cases where that isn’t possible due to distance, as with Ampong, interviews can be done through virtual means. Following interview weekend, applicants are notified of the admissions decision. Once accepted, they must make a deposit to hold their spot, and they need to secure housing. Students arrive in late August.
According to CGP officials, Ampong was accepted into the program last year, but his unique situation required more time than domestic students typically need to begin. Specifically, he needs to raise about $56,000.00 in order to travel to the United States, live here for two years and complete the program.
The average monthly salary in Ghana, in U.S. dollars, is $230.00 (Mintsalary). Very few people make $1,100.00 or more per month and about a quarter of Ghanaian employees average just US$170.00 monthly income. Ampong himself, a museum docent at Elmina Castle—a former slave trading fort on the Gulf of Guinea, preserved today as a Ghanaian national museum and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Monument—earns about US$30.00 a month in his semi-official capacity as a tour guide during the season and otherwise relies on $3.00 per day doing hard labor at construction sites.
The $56,000.00 would seem out of reach.
Ampong, who holds a degree in tourism management from Takoradi Technical University, was encouraged to apply to the museum studies program here by Professor Peter Rutkoff, a CGP adjunct professor and summer Cooperstown resident. The two met in August 2022 at Elmina Castle on one of Rutkoff’s research trips. Rutkoff was impressed by the 28-year-old docent, calling him “the best guide he’d come across in Ghana.” The two kept in touch and Ampong applied to the program, was accepted, but was unable to pay tuition at the current level of financial aid.
With his passion for informative museums and his dream of a U.S. education, Ampong has said his goal is to help establish one of the best museums in his home country. 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.”
As you may have read in last week’s paper, Rutkoff feels strongly that CGP is where Ampong belongs, as does Professor Gretchen Sorin, the program’s director. They are not alone. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Springfield Center has organized a GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/enoch-ampong-study-in-cooperstown) on behalf of Ampong, and donations are beginning to trickle in. The question now is whether the $56,000.00 is attainable in the limited time frame.
“Inclusion,” “diversity” and “welcoming.” These are the buzzwords of the day. Let’s put our money where our mouths are, and help this young man’s dream come true.