Building bridges, changing lives
Concurrent photo exhibits on two campuses of Brookdale Community College offer a window into the work of Associate Professor Terry Konn and her students in Africa this summer.

Terry Konn and Lloria

The images show that their work built bridges between cultures and changed the lives of people living in Ghana and Rwanda.

One of the exhibits is at the Center for the Visual Arts gallery on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College.

"From Ghana with Love" includes images of murals Brookdale students created as public service projects, movies and examples of handcrafted sculpture and textiles from Ghana.

Konn, of the Radiologic Technology Program (Health Sciences), traveled to Ghana where she led a Brookdale shortterm study program.

Her health science students worked on their field projects at the Apatrapa Village in the Asante Region of Ghana.

This exhibit was curated by BCC student and Art Club member Liia Magi.

"In Ghana we studied its culture, history and literature," said Magi

"The purpose of this art show is to share what we got a chance to experience with everybody else. To show people that there is a whole other world out there, so different and wonderful at the same time."

"From Ghana with Love" is on view through Friday, Oct. 26.

A related exhibit, "Rwanda: So Many Shades of Purple," is at the Western Monmouth Branch Campus, Route 9 south through Oct. 30. The color purple has been used to symbolize genocide, hence the title of the show.

Konn, a Fulbright Scholar, served in a volunteer guest faculty position and assisted in the development of the first formal educational program in medical imaging at the Kigali Health Institute in Rwanda.

"My project [was] directed toward assisting the allied health students at the Kigali Health Institute in Kigali, Rwanda," said Konn. "These students are survivors of the 1994 genocide. Their education is paramount to the survival and future of each student, surviving family members and the stability and development of their country."

For more information, contact Konn at TKonn@Brookdalecc.edu.