NOTE: SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, like COVID-19, SIT may have to modify programs. Visit the SIT website for more details.
Examine development and the changing cultures, politics, and economy of Cameroon and explore the immigrant experience of Cameroonians in France.
Program Highlights
- Examine changing cultures, politics, and economy through the unique lens of Cameroon, known as “Africa in Miniature” for its tremendous diversity.
- Discover the challenges indigenous communities face when their traditional way of life is replaced by a western lifestyle.
- Witness the effects of globalization during a weeklong excursion to Batoufam, a traditional Bamiléké village, where you’ll see how this dynamic group is preserving its culture, identity, and financial sustainability.
- Consider the immigrant experience of Cameroonians in France during a weeklong excursion to Paris.
- Sharpen your French with intensive language classes, homestays, and cultural immersion.
Please visit the
SIT Study Abroad website for details on program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
Key Topics of Study
- Development theories and best practices
- The immigrant experience of Cameroonians in France
- Social and political history of Cameroon and Cameroon’s future
- Successes, challenges, and prospects for development organizations currently working in Cameroon
- Social, economic, and political change within three main ethnic groups—Bamiléké, Anglophones, and Bagyeli (commonly referred to as “pygmies”)—highlighting indigenous development structures, changing cultures, nation-state issues, and cultural aesthetic features
- Cameroonian culture, dance, and art
- Cameroonian women in development: the transition from the traditional to the “modern” woman, youth opinions on women, and women’s economic empowerment
Independent Study
You have the option to spend four weeks engaged in an Independent Study Project (ISP), with the opportunity to pursue original research on a topic of particular interest to you. The ISP is conducted in Yaoundé or in another approved location in Cameroon appropriate to the project.
Sample ISP topics:
- Representation and challenge of women’s roles through traditional dance
- Impact of gendered microfinance on domestic violence
- Efforts and obstacles toward political change in contemporary Cameroon
- Cultivating rice in import-dependent Cameroon
- Political opinion among Cameroonian youth
- Chinese and American development efforts and perceptions in Cameroon
- Gender roles and standards of beauty in Cameroon
- Traditional and modern healing: people’s preferences
- The uses and practices of bilingualism in Cameroonian schools
- The influences of westernization on the Bikutsi style of music
- Oral history of the Bamiléké people
- Land grabbing and its local impacts
- Microfinance and women’s empowerment
Internships
You can choose to complete an internship during the last four weeks of this program. For this internship, you will be placed with a local Cameroonian organization where you will gain real work experience related to the program’s theme and develop professional skills you can use in your career.
SIT internships are hands on and reflective. In addition to completing the internship, you will submit a paper in which you describe, assess, and analyze learning. The paper will also outline the tasks you completed through the internship, professional relationships you developed, and challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.
Interning in Cameroon
Compared to most countries in the region, Cameroon has had relative political stability since independence, which has permitted investments in agriculture, transport infrastructure, petroleum, and timber. In this sense, Cameroon provides an excellent setting in which to study mainstream development in action and the transitions that occur within a developing society. This internship will place you in an organization at the center of this transition to enable you to appreciate the driving forces and goals of mainstream development practice and how they have been structured.
SIT has partnered with a number of organizations to provide internship placements; alternately, you may complete an internship of your own choosing with approval from the academic director.
Sample internships:
- Providing financial support to women entrepreneurs at nationwide savings and credit cooperative MUFFA Cameroon
- Assisting efforts to end hunger, poverty, and socioeconomic injustice; protect the environment; and support indigenous rights at RELUFA, a nonpartisan national network of secular nonprofit organizations and mainstream churches from all regions of Cameroon
- Working with Women’s Promotion and Assistance Association to eradicate illiteracy, prostitution, child abuse, poverty, and human trafficking
- Advocating for farmers and other Cameroonians at Citizens Association for the Defense of Collective Interests, a well-known and respected organization that works to change unfair laws and corruption across all of Cameroon
- Assisting in projects such as agricultural investment, women’s entrepreneurial classes, and a girls’ soccer program at Breaking Ground, an organization founded by a former SIT student and her classmates on the principle that a community project can only effectively address the needs of a population if it is conceived, planned, and implemented by the community for whom it is intended
Money Matters
Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.
SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:
- All educational costs, including educational excursions
- All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
- Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
- Health and accident insurance
- SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
- All scholarships and grants are need-based.
- Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.
- The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
- Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
Contact SIT Study Abroad
Study in Cameroon a Semester!
Institution
SIT Study Abroad offers small (10-35 participants) semester and summer programs for undergraduate students in Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as comparative programs in multiple locations. Students step beyond the boundaries of a traditional classroom to analyze the critical issues shaping local communities around the globe. The Cameroon program examines development and the changing cultures, politics, and economy of Cameroon and explores the immigrant experience of Cameroonians in France.
Location
The program is based in Cameroon with one week spent in France.
Academic Calendar
- Fall Semester: Late August to Mid December
- Spring Semester: Late January to Mid May
For more information about the Academic Calendar and program details please visit the
SIT Cameroon web page.
Housing
You will spend five weeks in a homestay in Yaoundé, 10 days with a host family in Batoufam, and 10 days with a family in Bamenda. During the final four weeks of the program, as you complete your internship or Independent Study Project, you will also stay with local families.
Other accommodations during the program include hostels, guest houses, educational institutions, or small hotels.
Financial
Program Costs
Paid to Appalachian State
| 2017-2018 |
Semester |
| 1SIT Tuition |
See SIT |
| SIT Housing & Meals |
See SIT |
| 2OIED Program Development Fee |
$200 |
1Tuition, fees, and housing are charged at the SIT rate.
2The OIED Program Development Fee will be placed on students’ accounts upon acceptance by the Education Abroad Office. The fee payment confirms your spot and is non-refundable.
Estimated Additional Costs
| |
Semester |
| Airfare |
$1400 - $2200 |
| 1Essential Living Expenses |
$500 - $1000 |
| Books and Materials |
$200 |
| Local Transportation |
$100 - $300 |
| Visa (for US Citizens) |
$244 |
| Passport |
$150 |
| 2Appalachian Student Health Insurance |
$1110 |
| Estimated Total Additional Expenses |
|
| 3Personal Travel and Spending |
$900 - $1500 |
1Essential living expenses includes but is not limited to: toiletries, cell phone, emergency funds, laundry, etc.
2Students are encouraged to maintain a US based health insurance plan while abroad (to exempt out of AppState insurance students must follow the App exemption process - proving that they have insurance coverage for the entirety of the semester.
3Personal Travel and Spending amounts will vary by student and will be affected by how often a student goes out, travels, and the items they purchase.
Please note that non-billable costs are estimates only and will be affected by personal spending habits, currency fluctuations, etc. Prices listed in USD unless otherwise noted.
Students are encouraged to start planning for their study abroad program costs well in advance. Please use the Student Financial Planning Worksheet to help estimate your anticipated expenses and your anticipated financial resources. When planning for estimated additional costs students are encouraged to research currency conversion rates.
Financial Aid
The majority of financial aid and scholarships can apply to semester and year-long study abroad programs. For more information please visit the Office of Student Financial Aid web page.
Scholarships
SIT Pell Grant Match
SIT offers matching funding to Pell Grant recipients. To qualify for the Match program students must submit a scholarship application through SIT.
SIT Need-Based Scholarships
SIT Study Abroad only awards need-based scholarships and grants. Average awards range between $500 and $5,000 for our semester programs, and between $500 and $3,000 for our summer programs. Our scholarships and grants are available to all students accepted into an SIT Study Abroad program irrespective of citizenship, national origin, or home school.
OIED Scholarships
Each semester OIED offers a variety of different scholarship opportunities for students. Scholarship awards range from $500 to $2000.
Benjamin A Gilman Scholarship
The Gilman Scholarship Program application is open to U.S. citizen undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding at a two-year or four-year college or university to participate in study and intern abroad programs worldwide.
Fund for Education Abroad
Applicants from groups underrepresented in study abroad and those destined for non-traditional locations are given preference, in an effort to make the demographics of U.S. undergraduates studying abroad reflect the rich diversity of the U.S. population.
For information about additional scholarships please visit our External Scholarships web page.
Academics
SIT offers a field-based, experiential approach to learning in a small group environment. The Cameroon program's coursework provides an essential foundation in:
- Development theories and best practices
- The immigrant experience of Cameroonians in France
- Social and political history of Cameroon and Cameroon’s future
- Successes, challenges, and prospects for development organizations currently working in Cameroon
- Social, economic, and political change within three main ethnic groups—Bamiléké, Anglophones, and Bagyeli (commonly referred to as “pygmies”)—highlighting indigenous development structures, changing cultures, nation-state issues, and cultural aesthetic features
- Cameroonian culture, dance, and art
- Cameroonian women in development: the transition from the traditional to the “modern” woman, youth opinions on women, and women’s economic empowerment
In the final month of the program, you will conduct an Independent Study Project (ISP). This will provide you with an opportunity to pursue original research on a situation or topic of particular interest to you.
For more information about the courses and structure of the program please visit the SIT Cameroon web page.
All students are expected to maintain at least the equivalent of a full time course load according to Appalachian State and the host university while abroad (whichever is greater). Students participating on the SIT Cameroon program will be required to enroll in 16 credits per semester. For more information about study abroad enrollment policies, credit approval, and credit and grade conversions please visit the Academics section of our website.
How to Apply
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and some programs may fill up before the listed deadline. Each year applications for Fall, Spring, and Summer will open up on August 1st. Once open the deadline will be listed below and an Apply Now button will be available at the top and bottom of this page. Most applications will have a 2 part application process so students are encouraged to complete their OIED application well before the listed deadline.
Students applying to a SIT program should complete the
SIT application while also completing the Appalachian application.
For more information about deadlines and how to apply please visit our
Planning web page.