For the first time since political and economic instability forced the California State University to abandon its exchange program in Zimbabwe five years ago, exchange students – including six SF State students – will return to the continent of Africa.

To fill the void left by the closing of CSU’s sole African program at the University of Zimbabwe, three promising new partnerships with African universities have been forged: one in Ghana and two in South Africa.

“The sister universities are really well chosen,” said Trevor Getz, campus representative to the All Campus International Programs Committee. Getz believes participating in the programs “will blow your preconceptions, not just of Africa, but of race, gender, economics, and how people live.”

After the Zimbabwe program was suspended, “we made a commitment to having Africa as a site,” said Leo Van Cleve, director of international programs for CSU. “This is an important part of the world and we need to have people knowledgeable about it.”

SF State geography student Annika Anderson, 19, not only expects to learn from her experience in South Africa, she also hopes to give back.

Anderson’s emphasis is in physical geography, primarily soil – a field of study vital to the continent of Africa.

“There is lots of desertification in Africa because of overgrazing,” she said. Anderson chose South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University because of its expertise in the field.

The 34-hour journey to South Africa will be the first time Anderson has left the United States and her family, which includes six brother and sisters. Yet, she is not nervous about her trip.

“I’m mostly just impatient,” Anderson said, since she must wait until January to begin her studies in South Africa.

Each of the three new sites offers a unique experience.

Students who study in South Africa will find a country rebuilding itself after the racial separation that forcibly took place during Apartheid.

“People are really experimenting with how to heal and facing it instead of avoiding it,” said Getz, who has been teaching African history at SF State for five years.

In Durban, students will experience an urban, tropical, fast paced city at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Getz said.

“They have skyscrapers and amusement parks. It’s very developed,” said SF State graduate student Windy Smith, who visited South Africa more than 10 times while she studied in Zimbabwe in 1998 as a CSU exchange student.

In Port Elizabeth, students will study at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. While the town is relatively affluent, widespread poverty blankets the surrounding rural areas. Smith, 35, chose the area for the possibility of interning with UNICEF.

Smith studied in Zimbabwe in 1998 and visited again in 2001, just before the program was shut down.

“I was on the campus when they were throwing tear gas bombs,” Smith said.

The deteriorating conditions she witnessed in Zimbabwe prompted her to pursue an international relations graduate degree at SF State (her undergrad was in music.) Someday she hopes to return to Zimbabwe to provide humanitarian aid, she said.

For now, she is excited by the possibility of studying in South Africa with her 3-year-old son.

“There are so many kids there, everyone has kids, and on the family level I think we will connect," Smith said. "I will meet a lot of people through my son.”

Currently Smith is an alternate, waiting for a student withdrawal to cement her spot.

In Ghana, Getz said students will study at “West Africa’s strongest university.”

“Politically vibrant and fast growing,” Getz said Ghana has distanced itself from western influence.

“Students studying in Ghana will get a very African experience,” Van Cleve said.

SF State’s Office of International Programs sends more students abroad than any other CSU campus.

This year alone, SF State sent 130 students abroad through CSU programs. The second largest program in the CSU system, Chico State, sent 52 students abroad through CSU programs.

For SF State students, the process has been made more efficient. A newly formed Segment III cluster allows students to complete the upper division requirement while living abroad.

The three new programs effectively open up the African continent to CSU students.

“Students could go to Ghana and then South Africa, and each experience would be completely different,” said Johnetta Richards, who spent six years as campus representative to the All Campus International Programs Committee. “Experiencing another culture broadens your prospective on everything.”