Philadelphia Students Travel to Ghana for Transformative Black History Month Learning Experience
A group of seventh-grade students from Global Leadership Academy Southwest in West Philadelphia has returned home after completing a transformative 10-day educational journey to Ghana during Black History Month.
Led by the school’s co-founder, civil rights activist Dr. Naomi Johnson Booker, the students traveled to West Africa in February and returned around March 9, 2026, after taking part in a program designed to connect classroom lessons with real-world history and culture.
The trip brought approximately 20 students thousands of miles from Philadelphia to Accra, where they explored historical sites linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and immersed themselves in Ghanaian culture. The journey also included visits to University of Ghana and local schools, where the American students interacted with Ghanaian peers and learned about daily life in the country.
For many of the students, it was their first time traveling outside the United States. School leaders say the experience was designed to expand their worldview and help them better understand their heritage.
“This is like the pinnacle of what we do,” Booker said before the trip, explaining that visiting Ghana would help students see the historical connection between Africa and the African diaspora in the Americas.
One of the most emotional moments of the trip came during a visit to the historic “Last Bath,” a site where captured Africans were forced to wash before being taken to slave ships along the coast. Some students described the moment as deeply moving, with one saying the experience felt as though their ancestors were speaking to them.
The Ghana visit is part of the school’s long-running global studies program, which sends students on international learning expeditions to broaden their perspectives and prepare them to become global citizens. Over the years, scholars from the academy have traveled to countries including China, Jamaica, Haiti, Kenya, and the Bahamas as part of the initiative.
Educators say the journey to Ghana offered students an unforgettable opportunity to connect history lessons with lived experience while strengthening cultural ties between young people in Africa and the United States.