A Semester in Cameroon: Deep Immersion, Deep Change

When you hear the phrase "study abroad," you might think of Oxford libraries, ancient Greek ruins, or the Louvre. But for Ollie Sutter ’27, study abroad took her to a less familiar destination: the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé, in Central Africa. 

Immersed in Cameroonian Culture

As a double major in international studies and French, Ollie had always been planning on a semester in a French-speaking country. But when choosing her destination, she settled on Cameroon because there were relatively few tourists, allowing her to experience deeper linguistic and cultural immersion. She and her classmates signed a language pledge on the first day of the program, committing to speaking only French for the entire semester. Though Ollie had little free time to travel, staying in Yaoundé allowed her to learn the rhythms of Cameroonian life—like taking taxis at 6:00 a.m. to beat the city traffic and cooking with her host mom at an open market after class. She was even able to attend weddings and a funeral in her host mom's mountain village, where each tribe and association wore their special color or fabric. 

Faced With Hard Realities

But Ollie also came face-to-face with realities that can seem distant or abstract when encountered only in textbooks—discrimination against women, political injustice, and corruption. Firsthand glimpses into prisons and unhealthy market systems demonstrated the deeply ingrained issues that those in her field are called to address. "For a lot of Americans, it's just not real," says Ollie. "But I absolutely should be thinking about it as an international studies major, and most people should consider those things as well."

Coming Back Changed

Ollie found that spending time away from her home culture opened her eyes to things in her own life that she’d never noticed before. "There is a level of stress that you don't know you're carrying until you go somewhere like Cameroon," she says. "It's just so unhurried." Now, rather than always rushing to her next assignment, Ollie takes time to finish conversations well instead of cutting them short. She also said she wants to avoid jam-packing her class schedule so she has the capacity to process the content more deeply.

Ultimately, Ollie's semester in Cameroon taught her much more than cultural facts. Though her French has dramatically improved since her freshman year, she concedes, "Sometimes I'll still sound like a child. It's so humbling, and it's just a reminder of how we're not the center of the universe when there's so much outside of us, and a reminder of your humanity as well." For Ollie, studying abroad became an exercise in learning to see beyond herself and to better understand the people around her as fellow image-bearers.

Explore Covenant study abroad opportunities.