Samoa: Pacific Communities and Social Change

• Find a Program
  • Find an SIT Study Abroad Program
• Academics
  • Academics Overview
  • Accreditation
  • SIT Study Abroad Faculty and Staff
  • Program Partners
  • Coursework
  • Undergraduate Research
  • Credit Transfer
• SIT Study Abroad Admissions
  • Apply Now
  • Choosing a Program
  • SIT Study Abroad Admissions Process
  • SIT Study Abroad Application Forms
  • Tracking Your Application
  • Program Availability
  • Program Dates
  • Credit Transfer
  • Contact Us
• Health, Safety, and Security
  • Health, Safety, and Security
• Scholarships and Fees
  • Financial Aid
  • Scholarships
  • Other Funding Sources
  • Program Costs
  • Billing
  • Withdrawal and Cancellation Policies
• Experience Our Programs
  • Experience Our Programs Overview
  • Program Model
  • Program Schedule
  • Educational Excursions
  • Homestay Profiles
  • Coursework Highlights
  • Student Services
  • Health, Safety, and Security
  • Contact a Former Student
• Admitted Students
  • Web Advisor
  • Predeparture Information
  • Confirmation Materials
  • Medical Review Process
  • Health, Safety, and Security
  • Contact a Former Student
• Alumni
  • Request a Transcript
  • Connect
  • Next Steps
  • Events and Announcements
• Parents
  • Parents Overview
  • Benefits of Study Abroad
  • About SIT/World Learning
  • Health, Safety, and Security
  • Funding Study Abroad
  • Contact and Communications
  • Student Services Overview
  • Visitors Policy
  • What's Next for My Student
• Advisors and Faculty
  • Advisors and Faculty Overview
  • Services For Colleges and Universities
  • Admissions Information
  • Accreditation and Academics
  • About Health, Safety, and Security
  • About Student Services

Examine traditional society and social transition in the context of Oceania.

Through interdisciplinary coursework, field study, and independent research, students explore processes of change in Samoa and other Pacific communities. Students consider the impact of new and different values on Pacific Island communities and social structures in light of development and globalization pressures.

Topics for study in the context of the Pacific include:

• Impacts and incorporation of Christianity
• The shift from a subsistence to cash economy
• Introduction of human rights into a communal society
• Migration patterns and the role of remittances
• Social changes resulting from globalization, migration, and development in Samoa, American Samoa, and Fiji
• The current "coup culture" in Fiji

Learn from local academics and university resources
Utilizing SIT's in-country partnerships, students have access to local academics and university resources while at the program base in Apia, Samoa as well as during the orientation period in Hawaii, and on excursion in American Samoa and Fiji.

Through SIT's strong in-country partnerships, students enjoy access to local academics and university resources while at the program base in Apia, Samoa as well as during the orientation period in Hawaii, and on excursion in American Samoa and Fiji.  Academic resources include the University of Hawaii and East West Center, the University of the South Pacific (USP) in both Samoa and Suva Fiji, and the American Samoa Community College (ASCC).

Live with host families and learn Samoan
Through Samoan language instruction and homestays with host families in several Pacific island communities, students are exposed to diverse perspectives on social change and transition in the Pacific context, learning directly from Pacific Islanders.

Experiences include:

• Working in the lo'i talo, or taro patches, alongside young Hawaiians where students learn about the challenges Hawaiian youth face as indigenous people in the context of a US state.
• Staying in the eco-tourist village of Abaca in Fiji where students observe the impact of tourism on a small indigenous village.
• Living with an Indo-Fijian family, which provides a firsthand look at the similarities and differences in the values, beliefs, and practices of Fiji’s two major ethnic groups.
• Living with families in rural Samoa where students experience the growing, harvesting, and preparing of food on a daily basis. This deepens their understanding of subsistence living.

"SIT Samoa allowed me to see and interact with a community, a country, and a culture that I knew nothing about, but now love dearly. Not only did I get to meet and live with different families from Samoa and understand life from their perspective, but I had the unique opportunity to live and work with other college students from across the South Pacific. This allowed me to comprehend the differences and similarities that all college students go through, but also to realize the privileges I have been benefiting from my entire life.

Academically, because of my semester in Samoa I was able to create a wonderful senior thesis surrounding the Samoan communities of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington and to really reach out and gain an acceptance that most others do not have. I was able to present my research at the annual Pacific Sociological Association conference. Additionally, because of my semester in Samoa, I made the decision to give back to the world community and join the Peace Corps."

Andrea Gorton, University of Puget Sound

Oceania is home to some of the world's most remote habitats and today encompasses more than 20 island nations. For millennia, Pacific communities have interacted with outside forces and have survived the challenges of whalers, traders, missionaries, and colonial powers. Over time, Pacific communities have incorporated some external practices, technologies, and ideas and rejected others. The Pacific Human Development Strategies, a document formerly produced by the United Nations Development Programme but since 2006 written by the countries themselves, states: "The challenge facing Pacific people is to carry forward the strengths of their cultures, at the same time adopting and adapting as they interact with other cultures and as they inevitably integrate more fully into the world political economy." The Samoa: Pacific Communities and Social Change program explores this multifaceted challenge.

Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research