Academic Advising: JMU Project GO

Fit Swahili study into your college degree!

Integrate Swahili courses into a Bachelor’s degree

• 4 semesters/12 credit hours fulfills language requirement for most BA degrees
• Language courses often may be taken to fulfill BS elective requirements
• Program includes summer intensive Swahili classes (6 credits)
• The Army may support an extra semester in your degree for Swahili study; please contact your Commander for more info.

Program staff will provide advice and counsel to applicants and to each participating student on potential pathways within Project GO to achieve the goals of studying abroad for eight weeks and reaching ILR 1 oral proficiency level in a critical language by graduation/commissioning. Early career students (1st and 2nd years) will also be advised about how to participate in subsequent PGO-funded study abroad to further language skills.

Learn in-depth about East African cultures and environments

• The program includes the 6-credit hour course series East Africa: Human-Environment Interactions and Perspectives on Development, also known as HEI
• HEI helps students understand the ways in which people live (social organization, worldviews, and livelihood practices), interact with one another and the larger state, understand and relate to East Africa's history and politics, interact with their local environments, and more. These understandings increase cultural competence and make better Swahili speakers, and students learn place and vocation-specific vocabulary and phrases while expanding regional knowledge and intercultural communication skills.

Coordinate summer studies with ROTC training requirements

• Study abroad may be taken during any summer of the undergraduate academic career
• With advance planning, ROTC summer training times may be adjusted to meet individual schedules (contact your Commander for more information)

Integrate an African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies minor into a JMU Bachelor’s degree

• Swahili classes can be counted
• For more information about the minor, see https://www.jmu.edu/africana/