President's Welcome
Les McCabe, President of the Institute for Shipboard Education
Welcome to Semester at Sea: the preeminent shipboard education program that traces its roots to 1963.
Whether you are an interested student, parent, faculty member, or alumnus, I hope you will ask yourself what makes Semester a Sea the world's leading program in global comparative education. Beyond our rich history, and the high-quality academic experience we provide in conjunction with the University of Virginia, Semester at Sea provides a unique opportunity to create new perspectives and to tap into every individual's passion for learning and understanding.
From the moment the ropes release the MV Explorer, our state-of-the-art floating campus, our participants feel an unparalleled exhilaration about the opportunity that lies ahead. The immediate sense of detachment from land that is unique to being on Semester at Sea immediately sets the stage for a once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity--an opportunity that occurs in the comfortable containment of a floating university where the lives of faculty, staff, students, and lifelong learners intertwine to form an academical community. It is within this shipboard community that individuals not only receive the highest quality of international education available through a curriculum sponsored by the University of Virginia, they also receive an education in adaptability and versatility within a setting that includes individuals who share the desire to see the world and to understand its complex issues.
It is no secret that success at all levels in today's rapidly globalized world requires understanding of human commonalities and differences, cross-cultural perspectives, and personal characteristics of adaptability and flexibility in order to develop analytical ways of thinking about the world. Participants leave the Semester at Sea experience changed individuals. This can include a difference in social awareness, a newly discovered interest in a discipline or subject, or a broader view of the importance of human interaction and understanding. Semester at Sea participants simply think differently about the world and themselves.
Semester at Sea allows you to develop aspirations about things in your life that you would have not thought possible before. Such a vision only comes from an experience that begins when the shore slowly disappears over the horizon, the enormity of the ocean strikes your consciousness, and you reach a point of understanding the vastness of the world in which we live... only to be reminded days later when tying up at the first port of call that there are other countries, people, and cultures, that are waiting to be explored and understood by you, so that you may come back home with a new found passion and perspective that will position you for a lifetime of understanding and experience that can only come from being a global citizen.
I want to personally encourage you to join the 45,000 individuals who have sailed and studied the world with our program. Our participants have included Nobel Laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned scholars, distinguished faculty, active staff, lifelong learners, and undergraduates from across the United States and around the world.
Join us on Semester at Sea knowing that regardless of which career path you follow, this experience will open doors to you for creative achievement and personal success, and will likely change your life forever.
Sincerely,
Dr. Les McCabe
President
Institute for Shipboard Education / Semester at Sea
