Before You Apply: Key Tips

Living, Learning, and Teaching on Semester at Sea: Tips for Prospective Faculty and Staff

Living and learning with students on Semester at Sea voyages is an exhilarating, exhausting, and challenging endeavor. It is unlike any living/learning experience you have had, either on a traditional land campus or even leading a study-abroad course. The experience has a number of distinctive elements you should be aware of before you apply for a position with Semester at Sea.

• You will be living and teaching in a floating residential college with 700 students, 15-40 lifelong learners, as many as 35 faculty and their families, 35 staff and their families, and 200 crew members, all drawn from around the nation and the world. The ship's community includes a generational mix of ages, from young children to octogenarians. On a 25,000-ton ship, space is at a premium, and you will find you are expected to be accessible to students and staff at almost all times of the day. To some, this is an intense, fish-bowl environment.
• You will engage with students as though you were a faculty member in a residential college. Many faculty are surprised by the behavior of some students, particularly their propensity to stay up late studying and partying, arise late in the day, and consume alcohol. Although Semester at Sea restricts the availability of alcohol on the ship, it is readily accessible in port, and some students drink excessively. Most faculty have discovered that this generation of students-the Millennials-differs from earlier generations. Although many are rightly skeptical of generational classifications, they are helpful in defining key differences that may divide members of the community. If you have not already done so, you would be well-advised to read about the Millennials in advance of the voyage and adapt your teaching methods to this audience.
• The rhythm of the voyage dictates your life more than a typical academic semester. Classes meet on either "A" or "B" days almost every day that the ship is at sea, including Saturday and Sunday. The ports are the closest thing you will have to a weekend, and days in port are filled with activities. Long ocean crossings allow for extensive class work, but you should consider the shorter and sometimes irregular times in class between ports in your course planning. Gearing instruction to this rhythm is imperative, as is understanding that students on SAS voyages are generally active and engaged learners. They are interested in seeing and doing as much as in traditional lectures and reading.
• To find out if you will flourish on Semester at Sea, you must understand the lives and personal development of contemporary students in their environment. You are well aware of student behaviors in the classroom, but their behavior outside the classroom is often different. To learn more about the differences we strongly recommend that you
  • eat in a residential dining hall on your campus at various times of the day and week.
  • talk with campus staff about student behaviors and concerns.
  • read serious studies of Millennial generation.
  • if you can do only one thing, do this: visit student hangouts at night. Know that many students do not drink too much or party too much, but some do, and you will encounter them on Semester at Sea.

  If, after doing the above, you find that you understand and appreciate today's students, you are well suited to live, learn, and teach on SAS. The good news is that the vast majority of faculty on SAS have found that the professional rewards of being in this distinctive living/learning community far outweigh the challenges.