UCLA Student Affairs

When we arrived in Hawaii after seven days at sea, land was a very welcome sight. We had boarded the ship over a week ago in San Diego, all 60 faculty and staff, 27 family members, and 21 “senior” passengers, and had since picked up 550 college students in Ensenada, Mexico.

The students ranged from freshmen to seniors, and represented hundreds of diverse campuses throughout the U.S. and even the world. They had come for an educational experience abroad that would take them to 10 foreign countries, across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, through the Mediterranean Sea, and up the Suez Canal. They would take university courses like Global Studies, World Religions, International Marketing, and Intercultural Communications. They would join clubs, make friends, and live in the same residence halls as their faculty and staff.

That first week on the ship was all about getting to know the 650 people with whom we’d spend the next 14 weeks sailing around the globe. It also meant learning our new found roles on this floating campus, sitting in classrooms while the waves tossed our ship from side to side, being rocked to sleep at night by the cascading seas, and, finally, getting our sea legs. Hawaii was the first stop on a journey that took us to Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Myanmar, Egypt, Turkey, Croatia, Spain, and finally back to Florida.

As a Resident Director on this voyage called Semester at Sea, it was my responsibility along with eight of my colleagues to supervise the students, plan educational, social and cultural activities for the shipboard community, and serve as leaders on many of the on-ship activities and in-port excursions. As a Career Counselor back at UCLA, I would not only be able to bring my counseling background, but also learn new skills from a position and an environment that was entirely foreign to me.

The journey was amazing. We saw temples, pagodas, pyramids, monks, museums, great walls, remarkable skylines, holy cows, pristine and not so pristine beaches. We met deaf children at a school in Vietnam, talked with students at universities in Hong Kong, Cairo, and Kobe, Japan. We learned phrases in Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, and all ten languages most native to the countries we visited. We were welcomed without prejudice to places I had only hoped would receive us so well. I learned more about myself, the world, and its people than I ever could have imagined. And I made friends with students, faculty, staff, and the ship’s crew that transcended any preconceived boundaries.

When we pulled into our final port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the end of the journey was definitely bittersweet. While each of us looked forward to seeing our families, reconnecting with friends and co-workers, or sleeping in our own beds, there was certainly something about being on that open sea, traveling the world and meeting its people, that would be sorely missed. Semester at Sea gave me an experience of a lifetime - the opportunity to see the world. That is something I will always cherish.