Vicarious Voyage
When Courtney Kaiser and Justin Cagaoan sat down at a corner table in the Garden Lounge to write letters Tuesday evening, they weren’t journaling to their families and friends. Rather, their letters were going to elementary school students in the United States. As part of Semester At Sea’s Vicarious Voyage program, Kaiser and Cagaoan are each paired with a K-12 classroom in the U. S. and will be corresponding with the students throughout the voyage in the hopes of enhancing global education. Kaiser is working with 16 sixth grade students from Deerfield Community School in Deerfield, New Hampshire while Cagaoan is teamed with 25 second grade students from Groveland Elementary School in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
“The main goal of the program is to create a community between the ship and K-12 schools. It provides an incentive for young students to learn more about what [they] can do in college and how [they] can see the world,” said Danielle Genemore, Living Learning Coordinator for Service and Community Engagement. “We ultimately hope that the students on the ship will go back to visit the schools that they’re working with.”
Overall, 125 Semester At Sea students have been paired with 69 classrooms from the United States and one classroom from Germany. A majority of the classrooms are sixth grade or younger; however, there are two ninth grade classrooms, Genemore said.
Students are responsible for sending at least three cultural packets to their classrooms throughout the voyage; many of them meet during “packing parties” before port to assemble their cultural packets and discuss the items that they are sending.
“This is a great way to get involved with the shipboard community and introduce the countries to kids back home,” Kaiser said. She has sent postcards, maps, and food labels, as well as newspapers and brochures, back to her classroom.
Cagaoan decided to participate in the program because “it is good for kids to learn about the world at a young age.”
He has received “a lot of colored pictures” from his students and is sending them postcards and pictures of his travels on a cd.
“The experience has been worth it to connect with the children,” Cagaoan said.
“The Vicarious Voyage is like an international pen pal program,” Genemore said. “It’s such a small time commitment and makes such a large impact.”
(Note: this blog entry was authored by Kelli Phillips, Semester at Sea voyager and Communications Major at Youngstown State University)