For Bobby Astrup, Semester at Sea has always been an experience worth sharing.
A Spring 2013 voyager from Minnesota, Bobby still remembers how transformative it was to encounter the world firsthand at such a formative point in his own life.
“You’re at your peak open-mindedness when you’re on Semester at Sea,” he said. “The experience provides you with so many drastically different global perspectives.”
For Bobby, the SAS experience was also a family experience. Bobby’s older sister, Jessica, sailed in Spring 2009, and his parents joined both siblings during parent trips. Years later, that connection inspired Bobby to think about how his family could help make the SAS experience possible for others.
Astrup Family Foundation Establishes SAS Scholarship
Beginning with the spring 2025 voyage, a Semester at Sea scholarship was established through his family’s foundation, the Astrup Family Foundation, where Bobby serves as vice president. The scholarship aligns with two of the foundation’s priorities: education and supporting the communities connected to the Minnesota area. Recipients are students from Minnesota or those attending Minnesota colleges and universities.
For Bobby, the connection between those priorities is clear. A Semester at Sea voyage may take students far from home, but what they gain can travel back with them to their hometowns.
“The global perspective that you gain from Semester at Sea has so much benefit that you can bring back to your home community,” he said. “Even though the experience takes place a long way from Minnesota, the deeper understanding of the world and different cultures changes the way you think about and interact with the people within your own community.” Helping more Minnesotans have the opportunity to gain this perspective was an important part of the case for creating the scholarship.
Evolution of the Scholarship
An important part of this story is also how the scholarship has evolved. Over the past year, it has already changed in a way that reflects an important lesson about how financial support can help more students say “yes” to Semester at Sea.
Initially, the family set out to fund one “full-ride” $40,000 scholarship. The following year, that same $40,000 commitment became split into two $20,000 scholarships. Now, after additional conversations with the Semester at Sea team about how many of our students assemble financial aid from multiple sources, the family is dividing the funding into four $10,000 awards. For the 2026-27 academic year, two students will receive $10,000 for the Fall 2026 voyage, and two will receive $10,000 for Spring 2027.
While the Astrup family’s total commitment hasn’t changed, the number of students it can help has.
Bobby said the shift came after learning that SAS students who receive the scholarship are also eligible for Pell Grants (which ISE matches) and merit grants, which help bridge the funding gap. However, if their scholarship would cover the student’s entire financial need, these grants can’t be used, and the students would lose access to these additional financial resources. At the $10,000 scholarship level, the Astrup Family Foundation is able to help more students close the gap that remains after those grants are applied, rather than crowding them out.
“Our goal is to help as many people as possible have this experience,” Bobby said. “If we award four $10,000 scholarships, as opposed to one $40,000 scholarship, we can bridge the gap for 3 additional students and help them become voyagers.”
It is a simple idea with potentially powerful implications: while every scholarship is of great value, sometimes the gift that changes a student’s life is not necessarily the one that pays for everything. Instead, it’s the scholarship that provides the final piece they need to make the numbers work for a voyage.
Making Study Abroad Possible for More Students
For donors considering scholarship support, these “fill the gap” awards offer another way to think about making an impact. A $5,000 or $10,000 scholarship can combine with other sources of aid to turn a student who is almost able to participate into a student who is now packing for the voyage. And distributing scholarship dollars among several students can extend the reach of a donor’s generosity without increasing the total annual commitment.
For Bobby, helping students access Semester at Sea is also a way of extending something his own voyage gave him: the confidence and perspective to engage more openly with the world.
“Imagine yourself without the SAS experience,” he said. “Imagine the risk that you’re willing to take, the trip that you’re willing to book, the part of the world that you’re not scared to go to – all because Semester at Sea gave you the confidence to do something that was outside of your comfort zone.”
The Astrup family scholarship shows just how flexible that impact can be. What began as one larger scholarship has now become an opportunity to help four students bridge the financial gap between wanting to sail and being able to say yes to the voyage of a lifetime.
And for four deserving students, that smaller gap-filling scholarship may be the piece that makes an entire world of experience possible.
