Sowing Seeds for Change

By Donna Birch Trahan

Graduate student Rachel Riojas wasn’t much of a traveler.

She had never checked a piece of luggage, owned a passport or flown in an airplane.

Her studies, work and motherhood kept Riojas — who is pursuing a master’s degree in social work at Stanislaus State — extremely busy and close to home in Turlock and Modesto.

But that changed last spring.

That’s when Riojas took a trip for the first time in her life, and she went big. As in international-travel-across-several-time-zones-to-another-continent big.

Last May, Riojas was one of nine students and several faculty members in Stanislaus State’s Master of Social Work program who traveled the Republic of Ghana in Africa. The group spent two weeks there as part of the International Social Work course led by Associate Professor Sevaughn Banks.

“I don’t think our department has ever had a study abroad program that was developed by a faculty member from the ground up,” Banks said. “Our faculty have participated in international studies, but it’s usually been a part of another formal organization. This was totally grassroots.”

During their time there, students had an itinerary that was packed every day from sunup to sundown.

“We wanted to give students an allaround experience in Ghana,” Banks said.

Upon their arrival, the group did a walking tour to get a better sense of local experiences. They visited agencies that included a local social work department, a humanitarian organization and a psychiatric hospital. They attended lectures, learned about integrated healthcare and helped children in the community with homework.

“We did a lot in a short amount of time,” Riojas said. “Every day had its own story.”

For Banks, the course has been a labor of love whose seeds were planted more than two decades ago, when she took her first international trip to Ghana in 1998.

“It made such an impact on me that I knew I would be there again,” she said. “I did not know that decades later I’d be taking students with me to Ghana. Fast forward and here we are. One of the things I wanted to do when I joined Stan State was to help students experience the splendor of Ghana as I had.”

Banks previously escorted a student to Ghana in 2019 and was supposed to take another one in spring 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted that plan. Banks decided to make the most of the delay.

“It gave me more time to put this class together,” she said.

A major part of the program for students was to build a community garden. The request for this handson project was made by one of Banks’ collaborators in Ghana, an American humanitarian named Patricia Wilkins, founder of BASICS International, an organization that provides education and resources to impoverished communities in Ghana. “Pat started BASICS after a visit to a community named Chorkor, where she saw young girls who were not being educated,” Banks said. “She started a social service program that’s been thriving now for 20 years and is responsible for educating a lot of girls and boys in this community.”

When Banks told Wilkins her plan to develop an international social work course that would bring Stan State students to Ghana, Wilkins asked about a garden. The food grown in the garden would be used to feed the students served by BASICS. Wilkins said sometimes the only food the children receive is from the agency.

The MSW students didn’t have much experience with gardening, so to help them be prepared, they worked in Stan State’s on-campus community garden. Not only did they learn about nurturing the plants and soil, but the experience also “taught them how to give instructions to our Ghanian counterparts so they could learn about food sustainability and how to maintain the garden after we left,” Banks said.

Riojas said working with the children was one of the more impactful experiences. “We interacted with them and saw their excitement as we were installing the gardens. It was an incredible experience.”

Developing the course also provided opportunities for collaboration across academic disciplines. For example, Department of Chemistry Professor Koni Stone helped to secure three community garden plots at Stan State that served as the students’ training ground. She also gave students a presentation about immunizations and how they impact the body.

The students’ work on the community garden earned them recognition from the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission of Global Social Work Education. The students were awarded the Partners in Advancing International Education Social Work Group Award and will be recognized during a conference in Southern California this fall.

Riojas said the trip was life changing.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my degree. But after finishing my first year in the graduate program and going on this trip, I’ve decided that I want to venture into the mental health field. There’s a need for it.

“This trip made me have an a-ha moment,” she said. “It made me think differently as a student, as a parentand as a social work professional. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity.”

Sevaughn Banks

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my degree. But after finishing my first year in the graduate program and going on this trip, I’ve decided that I want to venture into the mental health field. There’s a need for it.

— RACHEL RIOJAS