My mom had always expressed to me the idea that college was the perfect time to travel abroad. When she was in college, she went to China during her junior year. She said it was one of the most exciting and eye-opening experiences of her life, and began encouraging me to think about studying abroad when I was in high school. Given that I was already planning on going out of state for college, I didn’t need much more convincing!
In the spring of my junior year, I was fortunate enough to finally get my chance to study abroad with a program called Semester at Sea. For about three and a half months, I had the incredible opportunity to sail around the world on a cruise ship that had been converted into a floating campus, and visit 10 different countries: Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and the Netherlands. There were about 600 university students on the ship, from schools all around the world, as well as another hundred or so staff and faculty, life long learners, ship kids, and crew members. While we were on the ship we took classes, learning about different aspects of the countries on our itinerary and the cultures we would be interacting with. When we were in port, we had the freedom to travel through the different countries and explore to our hearts’ content. Think Suite Life on Deck, but for college students!
I still have a difficult time expressing in words how much my time abroad means to me. I experienced and learned so much in such a short amount of time, that sometimes it feels like it was all a dream. The echoes of Chinese New Year fireworks resounding through the mountains while I camped on the Great Wall. The pulsing adrenaline of dodging motorbikes while crossing the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. The content peacefulness that fell upon my friends and I as we dug our feet into sand dunes in the Sahara and watched the sunrise. And it wasn’t just my in-country experiences that have impacted me. There were times on the ship where my friends would make me laugh so hard my sides hurt, and hours where I would just stare at the ocean and reflect on life. I will forever be grateful that I was able to have these experiences and grow from them.
There was a lot of preparation that occurred before I embarked on my voyage. Due to the fact that Semester at Sea isn’t one of the many wonderful study abroad programs offered by Naz, I had to make sure the courses I would be taking on the ship could count as credits for Naz. Thanks to the help of Kathy Hansen, the Assistant Director of Overseas Studies and Exchanges, as well as my academic advisers, I was able to get my credits approved and avoid falling behind in terms of graduation. I also had to get my financial aid sorted out, coordinate with my roommate to figure out the following year’s housing situation, and apply for visas. While the logistic planning was extremely important, I had unknowingly been prepared for my travels abroad throughout my time at Naz.
Many of the classes I took during my first three years at Naz subtly helped me develop an open mind and flexible worldview. Our Perspective-Enduring Question courses (PEQ’s) are eight core courses required for every student at Naz. They include math, art / music, history, philosophy, science, literature, psychology / sociology and religious studies. When I first began taking them, I honestly didn’t think that they had any relevance to anything I was interested in—I was just taking them to get them over with. It wasn’t until last semester that I realized that without my even knowing it, they were actually making me think about the world in a curious, yet mindful way.
Even if it wasn’t the focus of the course, each of the classes had an element of cultural and international relevance. In my Ethics in Literature class, we often discussed the books we were reading in terms of how the author’s personal culture and experiences influenced the tone and perspective in their writing, and in Intro to Sociology, we learned how ethnocentrism can make someone narrow-minded and judgmental towards cultures and traditions that are not similar to their own. The courses I took for my majors helped in similar ways, challenging my current perspectives of the world and helping me develop a stronger sense of self.
My Community Youth Development classes played an especially huge role in preparing me to travel abroad. Every CYD class comes with a service learning component, in which we get the opportunity to partner with a local youth service agency and engage with the youth in the program in a fun yet purposeful way. Not only was I learning about how to interact with youth, and people in general, in a strength-based, culturally humble, and self-reflective way, but I also got a chance to practice implementing those values in a professional youth service setting. While I was abroad, I found myself implementing that same mindset by acknowledging the fact that the individuals I encountered in each country were the experts of their own realities and seeking to learn from what they wanted to share about their culture, rather than projecting my assumptions onto them.
In addition, CYD service learning also taught me how to be flexible in new settings and be comfortable with being uncomfortable. When it comes to youth work, my professors have always reinforced the idea that the planning will be messy and that situations can change at any second. In order to thrive in this kind of environment, adaptability and an acceptance of our own vulnerabilities is key. It turns out that travelling in foreign countries is the same way, even if you plan every last detail of a trip in color coded ink. Sometimes those sudden changes are unfortunate: trains get canceled, it starts raining when you were supposed to go hiking, someone gets food poisoning, you get lost without cell service, but sometimes they can lead to the best kinds of opportunities.
While I was in Myanmar, for example, my shipmates and I befriended a Buddhist monk who asked us if we wanted to help his students practice their conversational English. It was something that was spur of the moment and completely random, but we figured why not? We ended up having a great time talking with high school and university students, and we wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to do so if we hadn’t been willing to take the experiences as they came. Whether surprises are positive or negative, I’ve found that being able to just go with the flow has helped me make the best of many situations abroad.
Outside of academics, Naz was the perfect setting to pick up practical life skills that were valuable while studying abroad. As a freshman, I came to Rochester without knowing anybody outside a couple volleyball players I met during a brief campus visit. Two and a half years later, I was boarding the ship, back in an unfamiliar environment where I didn’t know anyone. But because I had survived and even prospered from my experience at Naz, I already knew how to push myself past the nervousness of making a good first impression and do my best to build new friendships. I had developed a steady sense of self-assurance and independence during my first few years of college by constantly trying different things, such as cooking, riding the bus, and exploring the canal. Later when I went abroad, I found myself less intimidated than I thought I would be. I knew how to self-manage my homesickness and take the necessary precautions to keep myself safe, healthy, and happy.
Studying abroad can seem nerve-wracking for sure. Even though I was excited about embarking on this voyage, there was also a big part of me that was anxious about making friends, being culturally respectful, and staying safe. However, when I was very quickly thrust into the fast-paced ship community, I found that I already had the skills I needed to thrive during this crazy journey, because I had been developing them during my time at Naz. Among the things that I am grateful for in terms of being able to go on Semester at Sea and experience everything that I did, I am extremely thankful for all the resources Naz offered that helped me take the steps I needed to be ready for this grand adventure.
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