The University of Mary physical therapy program will provide another needed physical therapist for one west African country.

Samuel Owiredu, of Akwapim-Lavtch, Ghana, will be one of 26 students earning doctorates in physical therapy Saturday. When he made the decision to become a physical therapist, there were 36 physical therapists in Ghana, and six were Ghanian, he said.

Graduation for the University of Mary is at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Bismarck Civic Center. The physical therapy doctoral students are the first class to graduate with the degree since the university started the program.

"It's wonderful," physical therapy director Jodi Roller said. "It's something we've worked on for eight years."

Owiredu added a cultural perspective to his classes that couldn't be added any other way. He gave a presentation about traditional Ghanian health care practices and would tell the class how different health situations are handled in his country during class discussions, Roller said.

"He's very serious, mature, funny. His classmates genuinely like him," she said.

He's also determined and hard-working, she said.

Owiredu came to Bismarck in 2001 to attend the University of Mary. He completed some prerequisites before applying to the physical therapy program, although the program was his goal from the beginning.

He has not been back to Ghana since arriving and has lived with Kermit Culver, the pastor from First United Methodist Church. In this time, Bismarck has become his second home. He's even adapted to the cold winter weather.

During a clinical experience in Florida, where the climate is more like his home in Ghana, he would wear a sweatshirt or jacket on his walk to work. The temperature was in the 50s or 60s. It's a change from the day he had someone start his car because his fingers were too cold to turn the key.

In addition to working on his doctorate, he played soccer and ran track. His first career goal was to be a high school or college coach. He has a college degree in physical education.

His plans changed when he was coaching physically challenged people and helping with the national paralympics. He was amazed at how some people could be helped with physical therapy, but there were so few people to provide this service. In a country of 21 million people, there were 36 physical therapists. It bothered him even more that there were so few Ghanians who were physical therapists.

"What I like is helping people,"he said.

Owiredu was looking into physical therapy programs before he heard about the University of Mary. His track coach, Sam Aidoo, introduced him to a physical therapist from St. Alexius Medical Center. Physical therapist Barb Nash was on a mission with Wheels for the World, an organization that provides wheelchairs to disabled people in developing countries. Nash met Owiredu through Aidoo. She helped them get wheelchairs for a basketball team.

Nash told him about the University of Mary. The student-to-teacher ratio and personal attention he received during the application process appealed to him, he said.

After graduation, he will take a month to relax and study for the national board exam. Then he will go to work to earn some hands-on experience before heading back to Ghana.

In Ghana, he hopes to educate other Ghanians to become physical therapists.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)