Senior Serves as International Trade Volunteer in Ghana

Instead of completing her last semester of undergraduate studies on campus, Rider senior Brooke Olster is doing so through distance learning -- not via cyberspace, but by working in Cape Coast, Ghana in West Africa, that is.  
     Acting upon her lifelong passion for traveling, Olster, a business economics and global business major, last month embarked on her third journey abroad.  Finishing her coursework this past December, Olster was free to make the trek.  Doing research on the Internet, she spotted a United Nations Web site, www.womennprogress, “Women in Progress,” a non-profit organization that interested her.  
     Answering the call for an international trade volunteer, she already had many of the qualifications needed to serve effectively in that post.   While a student, she has had an opportunity to dabble in international and domestic affairs by studying at the American University of Paris and as an intern at Barclays Bank in London. She has also interned at the Office of United States Trade Representative and at The Employment Policy Foundation in Washington, D.C.  These experiences have helped her to gain a better understanding of government, public policy and law, current events, international and domestic affairs and economics and finance.    
     While in Ghana, Olster is helping Ghanaian women small business owners develop their businesses so that they can become more efficient, profitable and competitive in the world market.  Olster looks forward to traveling to several other countries in the region.
     “I am horrified, but not shocked, to see the extreme poverty that most Ghanaians live in everyday,” said Olster.  “During my three months here, I will be helping the women plan budgets, market their products, create proposals for funding, find markets to export products to and teach training seminars.”  
      Olster's academic and leadership credentials strongly attest to her hardworking nature.  At Rider, she has served as president of Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, and the College Democrats; as community service chair of Phi Chi Theta, a national business fraternity; as a peer mentor for a freshman seminar and a University Admissions’ Ambassador. Her other involvement includes working as a staff writer for Rider News and serving as a University Judicial Board member.  She has also served as a staff writer for The Princeton Packet.
     Upon her return from Ghana in May, Olster would like to work in Washington, DC either for the government or for a research organization.   
   “I am combining my love of travel and new cultures with my will to help others,” said Olster. “In doing so, I am also utilizing the knowledge I have gained in Rider’s business program.  I miss my cell phone and my friends but right now, there is no other place I would rather be.”

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