Sasakawa International Scholarship

My name is Gabriel Soje. I am from Nigeria, which is located in the western part of Africa. It is my pleasure to be in Gallaudet University for my Doctorate Degree Program. I originally came under the auspices of Ford Foundation International Fellowship.

My major is Administration and Supervision. My goal, broadly speaking, is to add value to the general lives of ALL persons with disabilities globally. I intend to re-position the field of Special Education Administration and Supervision, at ALL levels.

My project from last semester for the Sasakawa Scholarship was to contribute to the World Deaf Information Resource Project http://cips.gallaudet.edu/site-map.xml. This website helps deaf people from around the world to find contact information for international-, national-, and local-level deaf organizations in about 150 countries. They can also find information resources of interest to deaf individuals, deaf organizations, and others who work with them. My tasks were to collect information on resources for deaf people and deaf organizations in Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, and West African countries.

I came to the United States of America through the Ford Foundation International Fellowship. The Fellowship expired in 2009 and almost immediately the Sasakawa Scholarship took over my sponsorship. It was, indeed, a thing of great joy to have the Sasakawa Scholarship shoulder the enormous responsibilities of financing the remaining period of my education. It's coming into the mainstream at this critical period of my education is greatly applauded and deeply appreciated. Words alone can never be enough to show how appreciative I am and will continually be for the kind gesture. Therefore, from the bottom of my heart, I say a BIG THANK you to Mr. Sasakawa for having the vision to carry the educational burden of indigent students like me.