Daniel Cheluget, a WashU junior majoring in biology and minoring in African and African American studies (AFAS), both in Arts & Sciences, has won a 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Swahili in Arusha, Tanzania.
Sponsored by the U.S. State Department and administered by the American Councils for International Education, the CLS program is designed to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Recipients complete approximately one academic year’s worth of university-level language coursework during an eight- to 10-week period, all while immersed within the respective culture.
At WashU, Cheluget has studied Swahili under the guidance of Mungai Mutonya, a teaching professor in AFAS. He is the sixth WashU student to receive a CLS scholarship in Swahili since 2016, when the State Department designated it as a critical language. Previous recipients include Neema Kamala (AB ’19), Alexandra Barrett (MA ’21, AB ’17), Julia Stewart (AB ’21), Lucy Meigs (AB ’22), and Grethe Andersen (AB ’23).
