Friday, January 29, 2016
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
An interest piqued growing up on the city’s South Side is taking Zakiya Miller all the way to Ghana.
Miller, 31, daughter of Ron and Lynette Miller, leaves Saturday for the West African nation where she will spend 27 months as a Peace Corps volunteer.
She earned her degree at Tulane University in New Orleans where she also is pursuing her master’s. Her Peace Corps excursion is part of her practicum to earn her advanced degree.
“We’ll spend the first three months in-country getting acclimated to the language and the culture, and then we’ll go to our independent sites,” Miller said.
She is both nervous and excited about the trip.
“This isn’t my first international travel,” Miller said. “It’s always a new thing going to a new culture and learning how people interact with each other.”
She has previously traveled to Taiwan and Italy as part of her studies and visited Greece, Turkey and Egypt on her own.
Miller, a 2003 Chaney High School graduate, will be working in some type of health-education program but won’t know specifics until after the first few months. The three months in-country also are used to learn about volunteers’ strengths to determine where they may be most effective.
“I have a passion for HIV/AIDS prevention programs, so anything with that would be good, maybe youth development within HIV and AIDS prevention,” she said.
That’s an interest that started when she was in a teen-pregnancy prevention program through the Harambee youth organization. Her parents are the organization’s coordinators.
Miller will have to get accustomed to more-traditional gender roles in the country where she’ll live for more than two years.
“We stay with a host family at least the first three months,” she said.
She’ll have to determine her role in that home.
Because part of being effective with the Peace Corps involves earning the trust of the community, it’s important to be mindful of cultural mores.
In some African nations, it’s offensive to shake hands with your left hand, Miller explained.
“They feel that hand is to clean yourself, so you shouldn’t reach out or eat with that hand,” she said.
English is Ghana’s official language, but the country is home to 50 different languages and dialects.
She isn’t sure about her career choice after earning her degree but ideally she wants a position that will allow her to divide her time between the United States and other countries. Her education is preparing her to evaluate public-health programs, she said.
Miller wants other youths to understand the opportunities available to them.
“The sky is the limit,” she said. “Just because you’re from a certain background, that doesn’t have to limit you. I’m just a girl from the South Side, and I’m going to Ghana.”