Sea Education Association (SEA) — Local services in Falmouth

SEA Semester is the best educational adventure I've ever had. It was humbling and challenging and enormously exciting. As a learning experience it was far more rewarding than I could ever have anticipated. I will never forget :swimming in the open ocean, buoyed by the swell of 3000 meter deep sea gently holding me up; seeing a horizon of only water and sky for days on end; learning to steer by a star; dawn watch seeing the sun rise; seeing biodiversity changes across the lines dividing water masses; the respect that grew for my captain and mates and for my fellow students as we learned to work through storms and anchor drags; the sheer joy of being present in the natural world and seeing companion creatures in their homes --reefs, Sargassum, deep sea. ; and the bittersweet feeling when at last we smelled land at the end of our journey. It was an immense privilege and I am so grateful. I was a scholarship student at my university and SEA also helped me financially or I would not have been able to afford it. I had never sailed before but the application process and interview with an alum really helped me to decide that I wanted to commit to this adventure. Since SEA, I have gone on to have a varied professional life -- working and living in multiple cities before settling in London. One of the fun coincidences was meeting another SEA alum when I was studying for my second Master's degree at UCLA. We were both changing careers to become clinical social workers.SEA attracts a wide variety of people. Go for it! It takes a while to process all you get out of such a rich and intense experience but you...

I was quite disappointed, and frankly angry, with my daughter's experience with SEA Semester. However, I do believe it was at least partly due to the individual trip she was on. The captains vary and this can greatly alter the experience. Apparently, there was a returning student on the boat who verified this fact as she had a much more positive experience on her first trip. My main gripe is my daughter was free labor rather having enough crew on board. I feel her positive experiences and explorations were limited by the hours of hard work she was subjected to. Indeed, she lost ten pounds! We did not pay a significant tuition for this nor was my daughter prepared for what transpired. At least the other students were lovely and suported each other during the difficult hours and sleep deprivation. In the end, I got her off the boat early. Do be realistic about the following:

1. how much sea sickness will affect your child/student and it can be debilitating
2. do your research on captains/personnel etc
3. beware that the contact you are told will happen with your child may not actually occur. This was absolutely our experience as many messages were NEVER delivered.
4. there can be real danger involved as my daughter was made to scrub a deck during a lightening storm! Inexcusable safety risk!

Please beware! Semester at Sea is a completely different experience and program. Make sure to compare...

My semester at S.E.A. still ranks as a top 10 life experience. After my first trip to a foreign country during college, I knew I wanted to spend a semester getting out of my comfort zone, beyond the borders of the United States. I've always loved the ocean, but didn't want to just drift from port to port on a cruise ship. When I found out about S.E.A., I knew it was for me.

Every program is different - I'm thankful mine included 4 weeks of non-stop sailing, no port stops, as we sailed from Mexico, across the Equator, and up to Hawaii. As a non-science major, I was a little nervous about the oceanography project. I worked with the professor to find a research area that included some hypothesis/analysis, but still allowed me to use my graphic design training to present data in an interesting way.

There were times when I missed home or felt tired or didn't want to take part in dawn clean-up. But those times just made seeing a green flash or climbing aloft at sunset to watch whales breach while sailing past Maui all the sweeter. After the semester was over and I was flying the 6 hours back to the mainland, I reflected on the 6 weeks my shipmates and I had spent sailing a similar distance. We had done it -- together -- and after that, I knew I could tackle most anything life...