For adventurous students who cannot sit still, the University of Virginia’s Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea program, popularized by MTV during the 1990s, offers an alternative to more grounded study-abroad experiences.
The program, previously run by the University of Pittsburgh, is dedicated to enhancing the understanding of many different cultures in an ever-shrinking world, according to the website.
“The Institute for Shipboard Education exists out of the recognition that, in an increasingly interdependent world, there is a vital need to advance the exchange of knowledge and understanding between cultures,” the website states. “The Institute is defined by its ongoing commitment to combine academic excellence with challenging experiential programming, in order to remain at the forefront of global education.”
ISE University Outreach and Communications Director Kay Volkema said the Semester at Sea program is different from traditional study-abroad programs.
“Semester at Sea is unique because it is a comparative global studies program,” she said in an email. “Most study-abroad programs offer immersion in one international culture. Semester at Sea offers the opportunity to visit, experience and compare around 10 per semester.”
Vokema said the program attracts students from more than 250 universities around the world, and students choose the program because they are looking for a curriculum offering them the chance to compare multiple cultures to their personal areas of study.
“Students choose Semester at Sea because they are looking for a comparative global studies program that allows them to learn about a number of different countries and be able to compare and contrast them from the vantage point provided by their topic of study,” she said.
BU External Programs Assistant Director David Lamitie said while the Semester at Sea program attracts about 200 students per year, many students opt for a more traditional study abroad experience.
“Semester at Sea is a moderately popular program,” he said, “but more students still seem to be interested in more traditional options that allow for greater interaction and immersion with host cultures.”
Lamitie said because the Semester at Sea program is an external program and not run by BU, students should expect a different experience than they would from a more traditional program.
“Students should expect high-quality instruction, safe and comfortable accommodations and ample opportunity — both structured and unstructured — to engage with people of different cultures in a way that allows each student to seriously consider and reflect upon the multitude of similarities and differences that define their own and other cultures,” he said.
College of Arts and Sciences junior James MacLean, who completed the Semester at Sea program this past summer, said he enjoyed the program and the experiences and knowledge he gained from it.”I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience this summer,” he said in an email.
“I am completely satisfied with how things turned out and would go back to SAS in a heartbeat. It easily goes down as the best 65 days of my life.”
The summer program takes students to countries along the Pacific Rim, while the two programs offered in the fall and spring semesters take students to other countries around the world.
MacLean said the experience helped him reshape his predetermined expectations of different cultures, and the combination of structured learning and unstructured exploration made the program worthwhile.
“This was definitely a ‘work hard, play hard’ environment where we were always learning, though rarely from a textbook,” he said. “My most memorable experiences are those in a country where I’d get to talk to a local, get lost in a market or just take in the grandeur of it all and have my preconceived ideas shattered.”