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Spotlight on "Student Study Abroad" - Alison Martinez (February 2002)

Spotlight on "Student Study Abroad"

"Alison Martinez is a graduating senior in Organizational Studies and a nationally acclaimed skater. She had such wonderful stories about her Semester at Sea experience, that we wanted to share it with other students".
Dahlia Petrus, Academic Advisor

Cape Town, South Africa — Wed., February 13, 2000
Our ship arrived in Cape Town at six this morning. I am now on the southwestern tip of Africa. I got up just in time to see us beginning to pull into the harbor. Table Mountain is right there, so close, gigantic, and completely flat on the top. The feeling is amazing. “I’m in Africa!” I shouted.

For as long as we can remember, many of us have been dreaming of traveling to far off places. I have now had the opportunity to learn and understand other people and places by an extended experience of life outside America. It is an experience I highly recommend to other students.

Last May I returned from visiting eleven countries through the Semester at Sea study abroad program, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh. It was an unforgettable experience that fulfilled my dream of traveling around the world. I wished to explore unique places, meet interesting people, and have the chance to do things I never thought I would ever do. For four months I traveled by ship on the S.S. Universe Explorer from the Bahamas to Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and Japan, ending the voyage in Seattle, Washington.

It was more than the common cliché of just broadening my horizons. The experience allowed me to grow emotionally, physically, socially, educationally and professionally. You find out who you really are and what you really believe through an experience like this. The challenge a new culture presents will test your limits of tolerance, independence and emotional and physical strength. Time away from the comfort zone of home in America allows students to explore values and beliefs. If I can figure out the subway system in Japan, find my way through the streets of India, say “How are you?” in eleven languages, and convert the U.S. dollars to Vietnam Dong or to Brazilian Real, I can overcome other daily challenges.

Going abroad became a real eye-opener. Begging street children and open streams of raw sewage in Brazil's favelas and South Africa’s townships showed me the extreme of life hardships and utter poverty. I experienced firsthand what it is like to eat real Vietnamese spring rolls, see the eighth wonder of the world, the Terra Cotta Warriors, and participate in rich cultural traditions and rituals.

The friends I met while on ship or in port will forever highlight my semester at sea. There is nothing better than traveling around the world with good friends, sharing experiences together, and getting together afterwards to reminisce. When else are you going to have the chance to dance until six in the morning at a club in South Africa or ride a bus to a fruit farm in Malaysia, learning from old and new friends? In the process of meeting new friends, one discovers the differences, but also the many similarities that people from around the world share.

Studying abroad is a vital link to obtaining a global perspective and the skills to live and work in an increasingly diverse world. International trade and commerce is rapidly growing and the global experience gained from studying abroad will be a great addition to my education. International experience is ranked very high by many companies and is an excellent resume builder. Desirable qualities such as being resourceful, adventurous, and internationally minded will only add to one’s marketability in the corporate world today.

My Semester at Sea program had a very rigorous international curriculum. Classes were intriguing in scope allowing me to reflect on my experiences in port and to understand the world better. Professors were knowledgeable with a vast amount of international experience. Classes, combined with profound opportunities for in-country fieldwork and cross-country exposure, helped to expand my vision and understanding of the world as well as develop compassion, determination, and flexibility.

A semester abroad is worth a lifetime of experiences and knowledge. No college student should finish his or her undergraduate career without experiencing the world out there. Reach for your dreams because this is the time to study far off places and to grow as an individual, and believe me, your life will never be the same.

February 19, 2001
I’m surprised I find myself on this ship; I really didn’t want to get back on. I wish to not continue my travels but to stay here in this port, just like every other port. There are so many things that I did not get a chance to do and the things I did do were captivating. Four of us are listening to the CD that Nicola gave us that contain her favorite South African songs and right now the national anthem is playing. The anchor lifts and the bowlines are thrown to the side and the boat has begun to move away from the dock. Standing and leaning against the railing my hands rest on the polished wooden rail as I say goodbye to a place that I never thought I'd see, a place I hope to come back to.

Semester at Sea -- http://www.semesteratsea.com/

 

Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea is designed to incorporate a global semester in your undergraduate experience. As academic sponsor of the program, the University of Pittsburgh grants academic credit for participation in Semester at Sea. The academic program is reviewed in its entirety, with all faculty and courses approved through the respective departments within the University´s College of Arts and Sciences. The University appoints the Academic Dean for each voyage, who is responsible for academic planning and implementation of the program during the course of the voyage. Credits earned meet the required standards, permitting transfer to your university or college.

The shipboard curriculum provides you with a series of insights into various cultures and societies and allows you to dissect and assess what you observe. Not only will you develop the ability to understand new cultures as they are encountered, but you will also gain the intellectual tools that will allow you to relate past experiences to future situations. Similarly, you are called upon to examine the crisis issues of global concern, such as those relating to environment, population, foreign policy interrelationships and economics, in the context of the nations visited. The ship truly becomes a campus on which you will work in a traditional classroom setting, and the world a laboratory from which approximately 20% of the credit earned for a course is fulfilled. The integration of classroom and international fieldwork enables Semester at Sea to provide a learning environment unattainable on a traditional land campus.

Semester at Sea --http://www.semesteratsea.com/

If you would like to study abroad
and use your financial aid contact the
Office of International Programs
or visit their website.

Office of International Programs

G513 Michigan Union
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1349
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/oip/