On November 28, 2005, a break-through performance was staged at New Horizon Special School in Accra, Ghana. A group of intellectu-ally disabled students performed a series of traditional and contemporary West African dances along-side a group of student dancers from the University of Ghana, bringing together the local government offi-cials, international ambassadors, and most importantly, the community. Not only did the event raise much needed funds for the school’s expan-sion project, but it brought public attention to a minority within Ghana that is generally left behind and rarely given the opportunity to say "Look what we CAN do."

Organizing the event was one of the most important aspects of my time abroad with NYU in Ghana. I know that the words "life changing" have become synonymous with studying abroad, almost to the point of being cliché, but experiences like the one that I had with New Horizon really do change a person. It is an incredible thing to have the opportunity to go to a place on the other side of the world and realize how similar our cultures are. When I visited New Horizon for the first time, I knew that something had shifted within me.

The director of the school, Mrs. Salome Francois, welcomed me with open arms. She possesses an essence of generosity and spirituality that I would be lucky to come across again in my lifetime. Now in her seventies, she began the school nearly 40 years ago when her intellectually disabled daughter asked to go to school. Even now, New Horizon is one of only a handful of such schools in all of West Africa. There is little outside aid for the school from the government or anyone else. This is because there is a cultural stigma that would prefer to conceal these people instead of developing schools and jobs to integrate them into society. This too is shifting.

For two months, Mrs. Francois and I sat with members of her staff planning for a first annual event. It was not easy or always pleasant, but there was a home for me there. Through my work at New Horizon, I found an entry point into the community and into the culture that I would never have found otherwise. I learned about artisan work, funeral rituals, day-to-day pleasantries, Ghanaian bureaucracy, and the quickly-changing rights of women and minorities within Africa. There is something magical about acceptance. As I was accepted into the new Horizon family, I was able to accept cultural differences. Soon the differences were minute and we were just people. Mrs. Francois, her staff, the performers, me: we were just people working to bring more people together. Through that process, something shifted. I think that we all felt it.