Saint Michael's sophomore Emily Sundstrom of New Haven, Vt., awarded Lacey Fellowship to study in Tanzania

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Saint Michael's student Emily Sundstrom receives fellowship to study abroad in Tanzania.

COLCHESTER, VT (04/30/2013)(readMedia)-- Emily Sundstrom, a Saint Michael's College sophomore, majoring in anthropology and elementary education, plans eventually "to teach in a culturally diverse school, ideally with many refugee students."

To advance this goal, Ms. Sundstrom applied for and was awarded a $2,500 Brian Lacey '72 International Fellowship in Social Justice that will enable her to study for the Fall 2013 semester with the International Partnership for Service Learning (IPSL) at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. That university of 18,000 students from, primarily, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Zambia, will give her wide exposure to different cultures.

Ms. Sundstrom, the daughter of Gary and Linda Sundstrom of New Haven, Vt., graduated from Mount Abraham High School before coming to Saint Michael's. Her Lacey Fellowship will enable her to prepare for her additional goal of possibly teaching abroad or joining a global relief effort.

The Brian Lacey International Fellowship in Social Justice is designed to encourage and honor Saint Michael's students who have demonstrated superior academic achievement as well as dedication to deeper understanding of issues of social justice. The merit- and need-based fellowship requires that students engage in study-abroad programs that address economic, political and social justice issues and/or service learning.

"Education in Different Cultures" and study of Swahili

This experience in Tanzania will "give me a taste of what education looks like in different cultures," Ms. Sundstrom said. She is active in Saint Michael's DREAM a mentoring program for children in subsidized housing that serves a number of Somali refugee families. She plans to study Swahili in Tanzania to be able to better support her 'mentee' families as a translator. She also hopes "to teach her peers about having respect for cultures starkly different from our own, especially since there are so many refugees in our area from Tanzania and surrounding countries in Africa."

In addition to Swahili, Ms. Sundstrom will take courses in "Archeology, Anthropology and Evolution" and "Institutions in African Society."

"By living with my semester homestay family and being integrated with African students at the University," Ms. Sundstrom said, "I will be able to see the culture through the eyes of a variety of native subcultures."

Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2013 as one of the nation's Best 377 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Goldwater, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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