Written by Jessica Hardin, Instructor, Samoa Immersion Summer Seminar
Samoa is recovering from cyclone Evan, or as we call it here, a hurricane. Although this has caused many hardships across the islands, students can expect to be learning about this recovery during the Samoa Immersion Summer Seminar. In general, students should expect to land on this small island and be greeted and welcomed by locals, teachers, and eventually host families. Although we want to be careful not to stereotype this nation as "friendly," it is in fact very friendly!
Landing the hustle and bustle of this small city allows students to explore a developing city of an island nation. We can learn about the global shipping routes that Samoa requires for all of its material goods, corporate fisheries and village-based fishing traditions, and dance lessons from youth groups. We could possibly discuss international policy with UN delegates.
Samoa is complex because culture (or fa'asamoa, the Samoan way) is always privileged and respected while modern and global life are embraced simultaneously. We can explore how this unfolds in people's everyday lives. Samoa is a hybrid nation; complex village traditions meld with the global attitudes of family members who move between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States regularly to visit their Samoan families in the diaspora.
Samoa faces development challenges of all kinds, particularly in health and the environment, but Samoa is also an island nation filled with healthy people and vibrant cultural ideologies and practices. Students should expect to be surprised, and learn from that surprise, as culture is always more complex than we first realize!
THE APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED: March 1