Bryan Elliott: The First to Sail
When Bryan Elliott first sailed with Semester at Sea in Fall 1989, he didn’t yet realize he was beginning what would become a long-standing family tradition.
At the time, Bryan was a junior at Northwestern University, where he studied industrial engineering. He had first learned about Semester at Sea as a freshman after seeing a flyer on a bulletin board at school. A year later, after a family friend sailed, sharing her tales about a life-changing adventure on Semester at Sea, Bryan imagined the possibility for himself.
That possibility became what Bryan now describes as “one of the most impactful 100 days of my life” – and an experience that would go on to also help shape each of his three younger siblings.
Bryan’s sisters and brother – Magen Elliott, Maryn Elliott Camacho, and Colin Elliott – all eventually followed in Bryan’s footsteps, each sailing on their own voyage, and each carrying the SAS experience into their own life.
“Our parents weren’t into fancy cars or doing things like that. What they really valued was adventures, cultures, education, and seeing the world.” – Magen Elliott
Before Semester at Sea, the Elliott siblings had the good fortune of some global travel opportunities together. They grew up in Indianapolis with parents who placed a high value on travel, education, and family experiences. As Bryan remembered it, their mother was a “lifelong learner type,” and their father was adventurous – the kind of person who understood the value of having your eyes opened by new places.
Even with family journeys in their shared memories, though, Semester at Sea offered each of the Elliott siblings something different.
Magen Elliot Sails with Archbishop Desmond Tutu
After Bryan, Magen set sail on her own SAS journey next, joining the Spring 1992 Voyage as a junior at DePauw University, where she studied political science with minors in economics and French. Colin followed on the Fall 1993 Voyage as a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied biology. Maryn, the youngest, sailed on the Fall 1999 Voyage during her senior year at the University of Dayton, where she studied communication management.
Though their voyages were separate, individual experiences, the siblings now share the common language and remarkable adventures SAS provides its voyagers. And each sibling took part in a voyage that circumnavigated the globe – Magen sailed east, while Bryan, Colin, and Maryn sailed west.
For Magen, one of the most powerful memories was sailing with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who joined her voyage from Brazil to South Africa. “His whole Ubuntu focus is something that is emblazoned in my heart,” Magen said.
That encounter shaped the way she thinks about the purpose of Semester at Sea. “What Semester at Sea represents is giving people an opportunity to open their eyes to seeing beyond just their country’s space and seeing outside of different cultures,” Magen said.
Witnessing Global History Firsthand
Bryan also remembers sailing during several significant moments of history, including the fall of the Berlin Wall. “It’s one thing to read about history,” Bryan said. “It’s another thing to live it.” For him, SAS changed his perception of the world. “Semester at Sea made the world bigger and smaller at the same time,” Bryan said. “You’re exposed to an incredible number of new places and things, but the countries that you go to are now no longer flags or borders, but rather faces that you’ve met or cultures that you’ve experienced.”
Maryn recalls the directness of seeing different ways of life through the SAS experience: home visits, cultural immersion, and seeing daily life in places far beyond one’s home country.
“You weren’t necessarily staying in a hotel,” Maryn said. “You weren’t still in your own bubble. You were thrust into the daily life of what it was like to be in those countries.” And those moments, she said, cannot simply be taught.
“To really just have your eyes open and to have your mind expanded – that’s something that you have to experience,” Maryn said.
Colin says Semester at Sea helped shape both his worldview and his willingness to live globally. Inspired by his SAS travels, he later lived in London for two years, something he does not think he would have done without the confidence and perspective he gained from SAS. “Having gone on Semester at Sea and seen the world, it was sort of saying, ‘oh yeah; that’s easy – I can do that now,’” Colin said.
As each of the Elliott siblings reflected on their journeys, the four shared that Semester at Sea has become one more strong bond between them. Semester at Sea gave them something powerful and shared, even across different voyages spanning a decade.
Magen sees that shared spirit as part of who they are. “We all have a sense of adventure amongst us all,” she said. “It’s almost like we have this similar string within our personalities – adventure and seeing unique and different things is really important to each of us.”
The Elliot’s Give Back
That shared experience is also part of why the siblings continue to value giving back to Semester at Sea now. “It changed who I was as an individual,” Colin said. “It confirmed the direction that I was going in life, and certainly opened my eyes to both cultures and the globe, even more so than I’d had the opportunity to see before. It’s important for me to give back because of that. Semester at Sea was a life-changing event. And the best part about that particular life-changing event is that it doesn’t stop.”
More than three decades after Bryan first boarded the ship, the Elliott siblings are connected by an individual SAS adventure that each of them carried home in a different way. At the same time, it’s an experience that also keeps the brothers and sisters even more bonded and connected – and will give them stories, memories, and shared values to continue to share with one another for a lifetime.
