A Little About Semester At Sea

About Semester At Sea

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of hearing me babble on about Semester at Sea by now (and I can't imagine that's many of you), I'll try to sum the program up for you through a set of basic Q&A's.

What is Semester at Sea?
Semester at Sea is an academic program sponsored by the University of Pittsburg and The Institute for Shipboard Education. The idea is that over 600 students, dozens of faculty and staff (and some of their families), and a handful of adult (senior) passengers from around the country board a ship and embark on an educational journey around the world, stopping at 10 different ports on three continents.

What countries are you going to?
On our voyage we will be leaving from Nassau, Bahamas on August 30th and stopping in Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan, and Honolulu, Hawaii (just for a brief 1 day stopover to refuel and stretch our legs) finally returning to San Diego, California on December 7th.

So, what does this trip have to do with school? How do you get academic credit for this?
On the days that we are on the ship, sailing from country to country (about 56 days), we take classes almost every single day (even the weekends). Every member of the shipboard community is required to take Global Studies, which is a class that meets every day while at sea and helps prepare us for each country by giving us historical and cultural information about the country we are about to visit. In addition, each student must sign up for 3 or 4 additional courses, which each meet every other sea day (on an A/B day block schedule). In order to graduate, I need a science and a religion, so I'm taking Global Studies (required), Environmental Geology (to fulfill my science requirement), Asian Religions (to fulfill my religion requirement), and Liturature of Travel (just for fun!). My schedule is set up so that on A days, I have class from 8 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. and on B days, I have class from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Notice that I left alot of time for afternoon sunbathing!!!

Besides the Global Studies course and our other courses, there are many other ways that Semester at Sea prepares us to get the most of each stop while on board. Before each port, native students or scholars of the coming port board the ship and speak and interact with the shipboard community, providing background and information on their home country. They participate in a pre-port meeting/preparation sessions before arrival in port. In addition, once we reach each port, an official comes aboard the ship and briefs us on the current state of affairs and safety and logistical issues in the country.

What do you do when you are in port? Do you get to stay on the ship? Do you have class?
When we get to each country, we get between 4-6 days there to do whatever we want. We can sign up for and participate in SAS sponsored trips or we can travel independently. We can sleep and eat on the ship or we can leave the ship for the whole time we are docked. There are no classes while we are in port, however, work done based on our visit in each port, comprises at least 20% of our classroom grade for each course we are enrolled in. SAS offers many sponsored trips (called field programs) including multi-day tourist trips, day trips, city orientations, faculty hosted field practicia (which are more course oriented/educational trips led by faculty members with a certain course in mind), university visits, homestays (with local families), and service visits (to schools, orphanages, shanty towns, etc.). I have registered for only three big SAS trips, one to the rainforest in Venezuela, one for a safari to Tanzania from Kenya, and one for a trip to the Taj Mahal (Agra) and Varanasi in India. I also plan to register for some service projects, home stays, and university visits along the way (which are supposed to be the "real" cultural/learning experiences). Besides that, I am looking forward to the excitment and flexability of traveling independently in each country.

Are the places that you are going to safe? Aren't they having problems in ______? YES dad!!! (Seriously dad, this is for you) I will be perfectly safe. Semester at Sea has been around for a long time and our safety is their first concern. They have a history of rerouting itineraries if current conditions in a scheduled stop become dangerous. For example, they diverted the summer trip to Paris instead of going to London due to the terrorist attacks, which had happened quite a while before their arrival.

Yes, they may be having some problems in some of the country's we will be visiting. However, look at our country from a foreigner's point of view. We have problems too and they are magnified to foreigners just like theirs are magnified to us! If you want to read all the details about SAS's safety plans/procautions, you can follow this link http://www.semesteratsea.com/safety/safety.html. Just rest assured that I will be very careful and will make sure to stay in touch so that you all don't worry too much! Life is too short to be afraid of living!