Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. President | St. John's University website

A St. John’s University scholar is honing her skills to empower deaf students while gaining fluency in Swahili by spending the summer in Tanzania as one of more than 500 college students selected from across the nation for the US Department of State’s 2024 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program.

Savannah N. Everett, an honors student majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, with minors in Social Justice: Theory and Practice in the Vincentian Tradition and Linguistics, was chosen from a diverse pool of over 5,000 applicants attending colleges and universities across all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Noting that she has been staying with a host family in Arusha, Tanzania, Savannah, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, explained, “I have been able to travel to different villages in Arusha and spend the day with tribes that have little to no exposure to English. Experiential learning has allowed me to grow tremendously in the language and the culture. From picking coffee beans with the children to listening to lectures from the leaders of tribes, I have really enjoyed staying in Arusha!”

The CLS program is an immersive summer opportunity for American college and university students to learn languages essential to America’s engagement with the world. Students spend eight to ten weeks learning one of 13 languages each summer at an intensive study-abroad institute. The program aims to promote rapid language gains and essential intercultural fluency in regions critical to US national security and economic prosperity.

Through CLS, Savannah has connected with a local school for deaf and blind students in Arusha. During visits to the school, she learns how deaf individuals are taught and treated and about the services available to them.

Savannah added that her dedication to studying Swahili and sign language, along with her studies of speech pathology, are paying off. “It solidified my goal that after graduate school I plan to work with minority individuals who utilize sign language as a form of communication.”

In addition to her focus on deaf students, one of Savannah’s favorite personal experiences is interacting with her host family—a married couple and their two children. “Staying with them for two months they have really seen my Swahili improve,” she said. “I can sit down at dinner reflect on my day with them and talk about cultural differences and similarities. They enlighten me about Tanzanian culture I experience.”

Savannah’s interest in the deaf community was sparked by volunteer work she engaged in at a local advocacy center in the United States. “I realized my passion lies in helping them spread awareness of injustices happening in this community.”

Konrad Tuchscherer Ph.D., Director of External Scholarships Fellowships Associate Professor History of Africa at St. John’s said Savannah has completely embraced her work in the CLS program. “In villages surrounding Mount Kilimanjaro Savannah continues thriving within cultural diversity multilingualism,” he explained. “She stretched herself beyond functional fluency Kiswahili [another term for Swahili] making positive contributions underserved population Tanzania through study deaf education."

“She is a linguist anthropologist speech pathologist rolled into one—and doing it all as an undergraduate.”