Semester at Sea: Study Around the World

Semester at Sea was undoubtedly the best four months of my life and truly a once in a lifetime experience. I had the chance to visit 13 countries in 111 days while taking classes and making lifelong friends & memories. On the Fall 2011 voyage we traveled to Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Honduras (changed from Cuba last minute). The diversity of the shipboard community is spectacular, as I was surrounded by people with the same adventurous spirit from all different backgrounds, ages, and countries. You wake up every morning with the world to look forward to and a new country on the horizon. Dreams are turned into reality and even bigger aspirations are formed in the meantime. You learn to live a simple life. Your friends and peers become your family. You forget about technology and focus on the moment. Food isn't the best, but you get used to it - taco nights make up for it. Sleep becomes a lost luxury of the past. The world is such a big & beautiful place and experiencing it firsthand changes you in ways you cannot even imagine. It takes you out of your comfort zone and alters your perspective on everything. Even though at times you will feel helpless about the conditions you come across in underdeveloped countries, you become extremely grateful for what you have and learn how you can give back to those in need. You will be driven and inspired to do wonderful things in the world. A semester abroad in Europe would have been great, but not many people can say they circumnavigated the globe on a ship in a whole semester. The opportunities are endless and the journey is what you make of it!

Semester at Sea was my favorite semester of college. Life on the ship is about academics and socializing with other students. You take classes and attend guest lectures. They bring in speakers from all areas of expertise such as CIA personnel and former ambassadors. Life off the ship is about experiencing the various cultures with the locals. Smoking hookah with Turks in Istanbul was an amazing experience. In addition to individual travel, students attend field labs depending on the class they take. I took a Gender Politics class, and we met with a Moroccan feminist organization and visited an illegal women's shelter. I still keep in contact with other SASers and visit them even though they live all over the world.

The semester was the most challenging, yet rewarding, most exciting, most frightening, and most eye opening experience of my life. Imagine waking up in the middle of the ocean, going to the most interesting classes you've ever taken. You then eat lunch, listen to an announcement about daily activities and the current depth and temperature of the ocean, head to class or study, and hang out with your new best friends the rest of the night. You even get a free snack time later.

if you love to travel do semester at sea! I loved this program, loved the people, loved the ship, and had one of the best experiences of my life. You learn so much about how to travel and become a seasoned traveler in just a few months. Perfect for college aged students

I love to travel, so I was excited at the prospect of a study abroad program that would allow me to visit many different countries in a short amount of time, rather than just immersing myself in one country.

The Semester at Sea experience is one of a kind - not many people can say they lived on a ship for months while taking classes and seeing the world! In the classes I took, the course work often related to the countries we were visiting, which made the lessons more applicable and relevant. I would say the only difficulty I sometimes found was keeping up with the reading in the course work, just because there were so many other things to do in port and around the ship, and there never seemed to be enough hours in the day.

But I think my biggest takeaway from Semester at Sea are the wealth of friendships and memories that I made that summer. The shipboard community becomes incredibly close because you're surrounded by the same people all of the time and going through this amazing journey together. And not only did I form strong friendships with students, but I was able to get to know professors, staff, and their families, too.

I would definitely recommend Semester at Sea to anyone looking for a phenomenal study abroad experience. All I can really say is: do it! You won't regret it!

Semester at Sea is more than a study abroad program; it's the first chapter of a new life, a new way to look at the world and the people who inhabit it. At its core, the program boasts the promotion of an international education in which cultural exchange, adventure, and formal education merge to provide a uniquely enriching experience abroad. Unbeknownst to the program however, alumni would disagree. The breadth of impact attributed to moments and experiences abroad with Semester at Sea are innumerable, immeasurable and frankly, unbelievable. The program spans a mere four months of a student's life, yet its influence is resolute. Lifelong friendships are unavoidable.

Dreams are fulfilled, and replaced with new bigger ones. Visions of change are realized. A short visit to the Wikipedia page for Semester at Sea will illuminate a small few of the achievements made by notable alumni. The truth is that Semester at Sea turns dreamers into believers, and believers into achievers. If you want to visit a few countries, take some pictures, and then return to the life you left at home, Semester at Sea is not for you. If, however, you want to see the world for what it truly is, and never be the same again as a result, sign up now for the voyage of your life.

I went on the Fall 2013 voyage, and SAS truly changed my life as well as my global perspective. I made life-long friends with whom I still keep contact and I now have memories that will one day make great stories for my grandchildren, if I ever have any. Studying abroad in general is a must, but only the Semester at Sea program will make a global citizen out of you!

Before the voyage I had no idea what I wanted to do with my future but after my service experiences and traveling I was able to realize that I want to be involved in the Peace Corp, and make a change.