Semester at Sea – Creating Global Citizens One Shipful at a Time

By Elaine Deutsch

Mind-blowing…eye opening…life changing….the experience of a lifetime…..

These are all expressions that are used frequently when people who have sailed a semester (or more) on Semester at Sea. Everyone knows that a study abroad semester is interesting and greatly enhances a student’s education by allowing them to experience real life situations in environments different from the ones they experience at their home campuses. It’s true that a semester in Barcelona or Edinburgh is a wonderful experience but there’s nothing that compares to a semester on a cruise ship with 650 students, including some adult passengers, faculty and staff and the ship’s crew, cruising around the world to about 10 ports of call. Where else can you see the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, go on a safari in South Africa, traverse the Panama Canal all in the same semester? But the ports are only half of the story. I’ll get to that later.

Picture: Docking in Denpasar, Bali. This was the Gamelon orchestra playing to greet us. Program no longer docks in Bali due to the terrorist bombings in 2012.

It’s hard to say what the most impactful part of Semester at Sea is. On the one hand, you’re experiencing places, sights, smells, people that you never dreamed you would experience. Setting foot on the Great Wall is infinitely better than reading about it or seeing a movie. I know, personally, I cried when I stepped onto the Wall and when I saw the Taj Mahal. That was decades ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. Meeting people in these ports was even more impactful than the sights. The kindness of strangers around the world is an awesome thing to experience. People invite you into their homes, share their meager food with you, want to hear everything about you and where you come from. They are in awe of you. And you get to ask them questions about their lives, their cultures, religions, histories, food. You can’t get this kind of education from a book! And traveling to different cultures allows the students to begin to understand the differences between people, how they live, think, work and encourages students to become citizens of the WORLD, not just their home campus.

Picture: Picture of me at the Great Wall at S’10.

But then there’s the ship. I spent my semester abroad in Fall 1971 on World Campus Float, which is what Semester at Sea used to be called. It was an old, beaten up cruise ship that continually lost engine power, rammed a dock in Sierra Leone and lost air conditioners just as we were around the equator. But we didn’t seem to mind. To us, it was the most beautiful ship in the world.  It was the most remarkable experience that I had had to that point in my life and I don’t think I’ve ever had a more meaningful experience since. These days SAS uses a lovely cruise ship that is used as a cruise vessel in the summer for German passengers. So, it is in lovely shape with a swimming pool, 3 dining rooms, classrooms, fancy student union, movie theater and spacious cabins. But it doesn’t matter what the ship looks like.

Picture: F'18 in Myanmar, after I sailed from Cochin India to Yangon. This was the first of MANY pagodas we stopped at.

The ship becomes your home. It is always waiting for you at the end of a day in port or three days on the road. It’s the most welcome sight no matter where you are. The excitement of returning to the ship after several days of outstanding adventures and sharing your experiences with your fellow students and faculty is what makes the program so great. There is no other college campus where you can sit down to dinner with a faculty member and discuss the differences between the history of Vietnam and India, for example.

Picture: The dream of my life....sailing with my daughter, Hannah, on the first 2 legs of her S'12 voyage. This was as we were leaving Nassau harbor and I could hardly contain myself. 

My daughter learned early on what significance SAS had to me and how it changed my life. I picked up and moved from VA to CA after my second semester without a job or place to live. I would have never had the courage and confidence to do that had I not been around the world with this program. She heard me speak about it, accompanied me to functions, met my friends, even sailed on the ship on brief legs when we could. I told her; I didn’t care WHAT study abroad program she chose but she had to choose one. I was speechless and in tears when she told me, while studying at U Wisconsin, that she had just submitted her application to SAS. The dream of my life came true when I set sail with her from Nassau to Dominica, up the Amazon to Manaus. She had a totally different experience from mine but, like with every alum, it changed her. You can’t get away from the fact that it changes you.

Picture: The ship I first sailed on, here pictured in SF when she made a return visit a few years later. She was named Universe Campus when I sailed but was later renamed Universe. 

Many of our alums go on to start amazing Not-for-Profits. Some go on to be internationally known filmmakers, fashion icons, creators of international businesses.  Some change their career path or transfer to different universities. For some, like my daughter and me, it was more of an internal, personal change. After all these years I still can’t read a newspaper article about Sri Lanka or India without it affecting me personally.

Picture: Our new ship World Odyssey. She is called the Deutschland (yes, really) in the summer when we aren't using her. She's 10 years old so she has at least 10 years life left in her.

Semester at Sea truly creates global citizens. Students learn how to step out of their comfort zones and greet people who don’t speak a word of English, dance with African villagers, help clean a beach in Ghana, etc. These are experiences you just can’t get from a book. It’s totally hands on and, if you’ve never done it, it’s really hard to understand the impact Semester at Sea has on the entire ship’s community; students, faculty, staff, dependent children and adults. It’s a complete floating university that offers a truly mind-blowing experience.

Bio of Elaine Deutsch

Elaine Deutsch has lived in Oakland, CA for over 30 years after having been raised in Richmond, VA. She retired as a Financial Services Executive in 2014 and hasn’t stopped traveling since. Elaine’s 28-yr-old daughter, Hannah, also sailed on Semester at Sea in Spring ‘12 and now resides in St. Paul, MN. Elaine traveled with Semester at Sea as a student in Fall ‘71, and as a staff in Spring '74 but has sailed several legs since then. She also sat on the Board of Trustees and has sailed Spring ‘10 Shanghai to Vietnam, Fall ‘15 Ecuador to Costa Rico, and Fall ‘18 Cochin to Myanmar. In addition, Elaine has sat and chaired the Parent’s Council, providing guidance to families and students on their decisions to sail abroad. Her next voyage will be in Fall ‘19 from Trinidad to Ecuador, through the Panama Canal.