An Ohio State student has overcome the “culture shock” of coming to the United States from West Africa and has learned some valuable life lessons.Chantal Williams, a senior in dance education, has learned a great deal about diverse cultures and people from her experiences living on the continents of Africa and North America.Williams, who was born in Los Angeles, moved with her family to Togo, West Africa when she was only 5 monthsold. Togo is a French republic located on the south coast of West Africa bordering Ghana on the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Benin to the east. French is the official language of Togo, so Williams attended a French speaking school until she was in the seventh grade. Williams also speaks English fluently because both of her parents are American. Her parents decided she should attend an English speaking school as she got older in order to improve her English writing and grammar skills. In Africa, many middle to upper class students are generally expected to go overseas for their secondary education. Williams’ parents wanted her to attend a university in the United States. “It was my choice, but I was pretty much expected to go to the U.S. for college,” Williams said. “In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to and would eventually end up in the states.”When Williams was 13 years old, political issues in Togo began to cause problems throughout the republic. A civil war was taking place between the North and South involving the President of Togo not wanting to step down from power. At this time, several coups and opposition parties were trying to overthrow the president. One day, after swimming with her friends at a recreation center located in an area where many political officials lived, Williams was caught in the middle of an attack from an opposition party. Bombings and shootings were taking place outside of the recreation center doors. “Luckily, we were right next door to the U.S. Marines’ living quarters,” Williams said. “They (the Marines) took us in and gave us clothes to wear because we only had on our bathing suits. We spent the night there due to the fact it wasn’t safe to go home.” The next day, Williams’ parents decided it was time to leave. The family then moved to bordering Ghana, to seek immediate refuge from the unrest in Togo. After finishing the school year in Ghana, Williams was sent to live with her grandmother in Los Angeles. Williams described her experience of coming from Africa to the United States as “culture shock.””I came from attending a small private school in Ghana to being thrown into a huge L.A. public school,” Williams said. “Everything was different.”Williams said kids made fun of the way she dressed, the way she looked and even the way she talked.”Outward appearance was a major issue in the States. In Africa, style and clothes weren’t such a big deal. In the U.S., brand names, coordinated outfits and designer shoes were very important,” Williams said. “I eventually learned that it wasn’t cool to wear the same outfit more than once.” Williams said at first even her family in the United States treated her as different. “I wasn’t very close to my family here. I had always been known as the cousin who lived in Africa,” Williams said. “It took some time to finally start to fit in.”Attending public school in California was the first time Williams said she was ever introduced to racial issues.”Racial issues were new to me, in Africa and in French countries, there are mixed cultures everywhere,” Williams said. “In the U.S. was the first time I became a skin color instead of a nationality.”While in Los Angeles, Williams attended a magnet school for performing arts. She had always loved to dance and started taking ballet lessons when she was 7-years-old. “Going to the arts school was good for me, it made me aware of the opportunity to study dance in college,” Williams said. Williams auditioned and was accepted to several university dance programs, but choose to attend OSU. “I was impressed by what the OSU dance department had to offer, it was a very supportive and nurturing atmosphere.”While at OSU, Williams had the opportunity to live in the Alumni Scholarship House, where she lived with 18 other women for two years.”The ASH house gave me a home environment. It made Ohio State more personal to me. The friendships I made while living in the house are still long lasting today,” she said.The next year Williams decided to study abroad in Ghana. “I felt I was missing Africa too much. The only way I could find my way was to go through an exchange program so I decided to go to Legon University in Ghana,” she said. Williams said she felt going back to Africa was more than just going home, it was a journey to learn.”I was going back as a student and also as an adult,” she said.While back in Ghana, Williams realized she had taken many things about her culture for granted. This is when she decided she wanted to concentrate on teaching dance. She wanted to share about her culture and other cultures through dance.”The true exchange happened while in Ghana,” Williams said. “In class, not only was I learning about different ideas and concepts of dance from my peers, but I was also teaching ideas and concepts of dance to my peers. It was a give-and-take situation.”Williams is a student teacher in Columbus Public Schools teaching creative dance to elementary students.In the near future, Williams plans to move to New York City.”I intend to carry with me all the inspirations I gained from here to New York and to gain more experiences and inspirations while there to carry with me to the next place; everywhere I go new inspirations will come,” Williams said.