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  • Sarah Sahlaney of Armagh, a junior at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., brushes up on her English skills at the David Glosser Library in downtown Johnstown. Todd Berkey

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  • Sahlaney stands with Karen Laridian, her host sister, on the island of Mauritius. Submitted Photo

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February 28, 2009

Summer school: Westmont grad teaches English to island children

By FRANK SOJAK

Stepping onto a tropical island with beautiful, white, sandy beaches and gorgeous weather every day sounds like a dream come true.

And it is.

But for Sarah Sahlaney of Armagh, the dream was stepping past the beaches to teach and to learn from the people who make the island home.

For the past two summers, the college student traveled with other volunteers to the tiny island of Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean to teach English to elementary school children during summer school.

“It’s a beautiful island,” said Sahlaney, who attends Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “The people are wonderful.”

Sahlaney, a junior who is majoring in African studies and international development at Georgetown, is preparing for a career in a nonprofit, international agency that helps to develop Third World countries.

Living and teaching in Mauritius was good homework for her.

The goal of the 20-year-old and her fellow volunteers, about nine in all, was to help the youngsters improve their English skills. The volunteers worked through a program called Learning Enterprises, a U.S. nonprofit organization run by college students.

In addition to French, the native tongue of the island, the children need to learn English because it is the official language of the island’s government, said Sahlaney, who directed the English program this past summer.

Although they are taught English in school, none of the teachers is a native speaker of the language as the volunteers are, she said. Having someone fluent in the language is always better, she said.

The island was a French colony for many years so everyone speaks French, she said. But because it last was under British rule, English became the official language of the government.

Sahlaney, a 2006 graduate of Westmont Hilltop High School, studied French in high school and college, so communicating with the students and in the community was no problem.

“It was really a lot of fun teaching,” she said. “My students were really funny. They were very energetic. They loved to play soccer, so we played the game during recess.”

She said the residents speak French in public but Creole, a blend of French and their native African tribal language, at home.

Sahlaney lived on the beach in a small village with the same family of five both years she visited the island.

“The family was great,” she said.

She attended their church and sang in the choir with her host sister. The man of the house was a musician and played guitar in the choir, she said.

Sahlaney made many friends while there.

Those friends had boats and would take her fishing in the ocean and for hikes into the countryside.

Her village held a festival in July, and all of her students performed together as a dance group.

At Georgetown, Sahlaney is a member of the university’s theater troupe, the Mask and Bauble Drama Society.

She is trying to become a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-educational fraternity whose mission is to help others in the community.

When back at home, she enjoys spending time with her parents, Michael Sahlaney and Linda Colgan, and her grandparents, Dr. William and Hannah Sahlaney, all of Armagh, as well as her friends.

A member of the swim team at Westmont, Sahlaney still swims and also exercises at the YMCA in Johnstown and enjoys movies, playing the guitar, reading, playing Scrabble and taking walks.

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