Sa'eu Scanlan
{{Short description|American Samoan educator}}
Sa'euteuga Le'au Scanlan (born 21 March 1937) is an educator in American Samoa. Beginning in 1979 she served for over a decade as president of American Samoa Community College, the territory's only institution of higher education, becoming the first Samoan to achieve such a position in the region.
Early life and education
Sa'euteuga Le'au Scanlan, known as Sa'eu, was born in 1937 in the American Samoa
Scanlan traveled to the U.S. mainland to study at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), where she graduated with a bachelor's degree.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Wiley|first=Bonnie|date=1979-10-21|title=With 5 new buildings, community college in Samoa moves forward|page=33|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin}} After teaching in American Samoa for several years, she left again to obtain a master's degree at the University of Hawaiʻi.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Wiley|first=Bonnie|date=1979-10-21|title=With 5 new buildings, community college in Samoa moves forward|page=33|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin}} This was followed by a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University in 1975.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Wiley|first=Bonnie|date=1979-10-21|title=With 5 new buildings, community college in Samoa moves forward|page=33|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin}}{{Cite web|title=Scanlan, Saeu Leau|url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AScanlan%2C+Saeu+Leau.&qt=hot_author|access-date=2021-01-11|website=WorldCat}}
Career
In 1970, Scanlan helped launch American Samoa Community College, which remains the territory's only tertiary education institution.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}} After obtaining her doctorate, she returned to American Samoa and became a dean at the community college, then the school's vice president in 1978.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATEWg8Kj-Y8C|title=Education Directory: Colleges & universities|date=1976|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}} The following year, she was promoted to president of American Samoa Community College, the third president in the school's history.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Wiley|first=Bonnie|date=1979-10-21|title=With 5 new buildings, community college in Samoa moves forward|page=33|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin}} Not only was she the first Samoan to serve as president of that college, but a 1987 profile also identified her as "the first Samoan to rise to that level in higher education in the Pacific territories."{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QmkTAQAAIAAJ|title=Annual Report|publisher=Office of Samoan Information|year=1980|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Carter|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-isxAQAAIAAJ|title=Pacific Islands Yearbook, 1981|date=1981|publisher=Pacific Publications Pty, Limited|isbn=978-0-85807-049-3|language=en}} She remained as president throughout a formative period for the community college, until the mid-1990s.{{Cite news|last=Iyechad|first=Gwenda L.|date=1992-03-11|title=Samoan culture in a quandary|page=6|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin}}{{Cite journal|last=Mageo|first=Jeannette Marie|author-link=Jeannette Mageo|date=1996|title=Hairdos and don'ts: Hair symbolism and sexual history in Samoa|journal=Frontiers|volume=17|issue=2|pages=138–167 |doi=10.2307/3346607|jstor=3346607}}{{Cite book|last=Mageo|first=Jeannette Marie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbWBAAAAMAAJ|title=Theorizing Self in Samoa: Emotions, Genders, and Sexualities|date=1998|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-10920-3|language=en}}
Scanlan also served for a period as president of the American Samoa National Women's Association after its founding in the 1980s.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}
Personal life
Sa'eu was married to the businessman High Chief Fanene Morris Scanlan, with whom she had two children, from 1961 until his death in 2018.{{Cite book|last1=Simon-McWilliams|first1=Ethel|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED280923.pdf|title=Glimpses into Pacific Lives: Some Outstanding Women|last2=Green|first2=Karen Reed|publisher=Northwest Regional Educational Lab.|year=1987|location=Portland, Oregon|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2016-09-29|title=Territory Loses Selfless Businessman|url=https://www.talanei.com/2016/09/29/territory-loses-selfless-businessman/|access-date=2022-01-11|website=Talanei|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2018-05-29|title=Fanene Morris Scanlan passes away at 82|url=https://www.samoanews.com/local-news/fanene-morris-scanlan-passes-away-82|access-date=2022-01-11|website=Samoa News|language=en}}