One Day to Go

Tomorrow I begin an incredible journey. At 9:00 am, I board a plane, on my way to the Bahamas where I will embark on the MV Explorer with over 350 other students to take part in the inaugural Short Term Voyage. As you can see from the lovely picture below, this "Maymester Voyage" will take me to 7 different international ports-of-call over the course of 26 days as I take classes in sustainable development, energy resources, and Spanish.

From the start of the Voyage on Friday, May 20th, it will be my goal to post at least once for every port visit. I will share my experiences from the ship, classes, people, field excursions, adventures in port, and whatever else may come up.

However, for my first post, I will give a little background about my trip and how I got to this point, 30 hours away from departure --

I first learned about Semester at Sea's "Maymester Voyage" towards the end of my fall semester. This was the first-ever Short-Term Voyage and the theme was set to be "Engineering a New Tomorrow." That was my first clue that this was an experience I could not miss. Originally, when looking at colleges, I was dead set on taking time for a study abroad. Of course, after enrolling as a mechanical engineering major, I quickly realized that finishing my undergraduate studies in 4-years and doing a study abroad were just not compatible goals. A little disappointed, I told myself that at least I could do a summer study abroad and left it at that. When the Maymester Voyage came up, I had an option that exceeded my goals - not only would I be able to study abroad in the summer, but I could practice my Spanish-speaking skills, enhance my Spanish studies visiting five different Spanish-speaking countries, and I could take engineering classes at the same time. For people who know me well, my dream is to work in sustainable energy development. Taking a class on Energy Resources while studying and visiting the real-life examples in different countries could not be a better fit for me.

When Spring Break came around, I made a decision that I should have made months earlier and applied for Semester at Sea (I had been held up by the hopes of getting an engineering internship this summer). In a matter of about a week, I completed the application and was accepted for the Voyage. Within another week, I had applied for a work study position and was awarded a position as a Resident Assistant aboard the ship (I'm also a current RA at Colorado State University). I began to select my classes, apply for field development programs and excursions, and submit the final paperwork. In the process, I also applied for a generous scholarship from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). Just over a week ago, I found out I was one of three recipients for the $3,475 award. I am incredibly thankful for the scholarship and the support of NSCS. The aid has taken an enormous burden off my shoulders and made me appreciate this opportunity all that much more.

So that's a pretty good summary of why I chose to study with Semester at Sea on their Short-Term Voyage and how I'm incredibly lucky to be paying very little for an amazing education and experience. I hope that you come back and check out my next posts to hear some interesting stories from an engineer at sea.

Allison