While many UA students took vacations to the beach or watched every season of LOST from their living room couch, Mike Norton, an agricultural economics and agribusiness student at the university, spent eight weeks of his summer in Ghana.  Through his internship at the World Cocoa Foundation, he gained international experience in agriculture while broadening his global perspective and making a difference in the lives of the farmers with whom he worked.

“I knew I wanted to do an internship that could have a larger impact,” Norton said. “I didn’t have a clue how that would happen though until I attended a lecture last fall by someone who worked in Rwanda with Opportunity International.”

After talking with a professor in his department, he got in contact with The World Cocoa Foundation and was offered an internship. Norton traveled by himself to Ghana to work with the World Cocoa Foundation, which works to insure the training and livelihood for West African farmers. The company operates training programs in Ghana to teach the farmers production practices, business management and input usage.

“The World Cocoa Foundation has a $23 million grant from the Gates Foundation and $17 million in private support from the chocolate and cocoa industry to trail 200,000 West African farmers over a five-year period to both improve their livelihoods and ensure a sustainable supply of cocoa for many years to come,” Norton explained.

During his internship, Norton spent most of his time in Accra, the capital. He did, however, travel to several villages and central areas of the country with the employees of the World Cocoa Foundation to collect data on the farmers in certain areas.

Although Norton wished he had the opportunity to live with a host family, The World Cocoa Foundation paid for Norton to stay in a hotel while he was in Accra. It included all of the modern conveniences such as Internet, air-conditioning and hot water.

“On the weekends I would go travel the country and most of the places I stayed at only had ceiling fans and open windows, so I was definitely content in Accra,” Norton said.

Although the society in Ghana is very different from that of the United States, Norton did not experience a huge culture shock. He did, however, notice some distinct differences from American society. He explained that in Ghana, people’s lives revolve around

religion in almost every aspect of society.

“They also tend to be louder in conversations, perhaps even sounding combative,” Norton said.  “At first I thought everyone was very angry, but I found out with time that it is just the norm for their culture.”

Another thing that really grabbed Norton’s attention was the amount of influence America had on the lives of the people living in Ghana. The people in Ghana often talked about the American debt crisis and the effect it would have on their own country, he said.

“We always hear that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, but not until you’re abroad can you realize the magnitude of it all,” Norton said. “The decisions we make in this country affect the other 6.7 trillion people on the globe in some way or another.”

While he was in Ghana, Norton also learned more about the concept of international development. This concept, he explained, is slowly taking hold in U.S. policy and U.S.-based organizations. In the past,  he said, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would go to a foreign country and would do something to help the citizens of that country, but education of the citizens and information on what they can do to further the projects were not the goal. Now, NGOs are more likely to educate the citizens of a country and give them the ability to continue the development after the NGO has left.

The World Cocoa Foundation is one way that governmental agencies are being trained to help sustain the work of the NGOs.

“I plan on going into public service, so understanding this development model at a personal level will enable me to make wiser policy decisions if I get the opportunity to do so,”  Norton explained.

If students are interested in an international internship or to help make a different abroad, Norton recommends taking to a professor in their department or visiting www.idealist.org for more information.