At least five Bulldogs internship positions will be offered this summer in and around Accra, Ghana, through Undergraduate Career Services and the Office of International Affairs, administrators said this week.

Bulldogs in Ghana internships for undergraduates will predominantly focus on public health, although opportunities to work in the government and finance sectors may become available. Like the other International Bulldogs programs, interns will live together in a compound, but will work at their separate places of employment during the day. The program will also allow interns to interact with the local alumni community through sightseeing excursions and home stays. All of the positions in the West African country are unpaid.

Donald Filer, the University’s director of international affairs, said the Ghana program recognizes importance of hands-on work in students’ public health education.

“For the student who sees his or her career pointing not towards London or Europe or even Asia, this is an opportunity to go to a different place,” he said. “In Africa in many places, health-related issues are so important to the fabric of the society. Combine that with how students have many interests in health-related issues, and this seemed to be quite a special set of opportunities.”

Filer said four of the positions currently available are in health and medicine, including a research position at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, a center for research on global infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria. Students may also apply for positions in health-care provision with the Catholic Health Service and public health outreach with the Network for the Improvement of World Health. Two positions in management and marketing with the Ghana Ports and Harbor Authority offer housing on-site in the city of Tema, which is 40 minutes from the intern housing in Accra, the capital city where the other interns will live and work.

Ruth Botsio ’09, a native of Ghana and the African affairs intern in the Office of International Affairs, said the Bulldogs interns will be able to experience the evolution of the country’s culture in the modern context of globalization and renewal.

“Ghana has had a very politically stable history for a couple of years, even decades now, so students will feel safe going there,” she said. “Also, a lot of people call Ghana the gateway to Africa because a lot of international political figures visit Ghana. It’s a very economically and politically promising country.”

UCS currently offers international Bulldogs internship programs in South Africa, Uganda, Spain, Mexico, England, Belgium, China, India, Singapore, Japan, Greece, Hungary and Canada. Students currently receiving Yale financial aid are eligible to apply for the International Summer Award to help cover the costs of the Bulldogs summer internship programs.