RICHLAND ONE STUDENTS TO EXPLORE AFRICA

Fifteen Richland One middle-school students will have quite a response when their classmates ask them in August - "What did you do this summer?"

In June, the adventurous group of young explorers will travel to Morocco and Ghana as part of the 2007 Richland One Student Experience to Africa (ROSETA) program. The group will depart from Columbia on June 12 and return home on June 26.

The 15 rising eighth-graders were selected as ambassadors representing seven of the district’s nine middle schools. During the 2006-07 school year, the students, their parents and advisors engaged in studies to learn about the cultures of Ghana, Morocco and South Carolina.

This year’s ROSETA theme is: "A bridge to new places around the world - A global education for Richland One students."

While on their two-week journey to Africa, the students’ many historical and cultural experiences will include visiting the W.E.B. DuBois Center in Accra, Ghana; walking across a 1,000-foot long aerial walkway between the treetops in Kakum National Park; watching talented village artisans carve walking sticks and weave Kente cloth; and touring Cape Coast Castle, which was one of the embarkation points for Africans being shipped to slavery in the Americas.
Their last stop before heading back home will be to Djemaa-el-Fna Square in Marrakech, Morocco, where fortune-tellers, acrobats, vendors, snake charmers and magicians put on a never-ending show. They’ll have dinner in Casablanca that night.

The 2007 ROSETA participants are:

* Jukayla Charmoni Johnson - Gibbes Middle School

* Kimberly Merceda Clarke and Elizabeth Spenser Gilchrist - Hand Middle School

* Di Jon A. Williams - Hopkins Middle School

* Dae Shonda Lorie Angela Ruff - W.A. Perry Middle School

* Destiny Alexandria Brice and Jordan B. Jumper - St. Andrews Middle School

* Nathalie Joi Stewart and Jonathan Rashawn Jackson - W.G. Sanders Middle School

* Niya Nicole Anderson, Gyaci Nkosi White, Jacinta Briashawn Fuller, Jessie Di-Clay Fulwood, Jody Imon Ivory Byrd and Keturah Yvisa Miles - Southeast Middle School

Accompanying the students on the trip will be chaperones Teresa Brisbon from St. Andrews Middle School, lead chaperone; Russell Perkins from Southeast Middle School; and Dr. Ransom Smith from W.G. Sanders Middle School. Fatiha Bencheikh, the district’s ROSETA coordinator, will join the group for the last five days of the tour.