I’ve often wondered how technology works on the MV Explorer, the ship that houses the Semester at Sea program (for which U.Va. is the academic sponsor, and a major contributor of both students and faculty).
Now I know the answer: A lot of it doesn’t work at all.
At least not consistently. Obviously, something must be working, since current voyager Alyssa Fishman was able to publish this blog post about technology at sea on Semester at Sea’s “News From the Helm” blog.
“While my initial impression of life sans texting, cell phone service, and the Internet conjured up frightening images from a more primitive age, I have come to appreciate the restricted communication outlets on Semester at Sea,” she writes.
I’ll let you read the rest. As my technology-driven work week careens toward another end, shipboard life sounds idyllic.
Semester at Sea,
technology | Thursday, February 7th | By: Dan @5:10 pm |
The UVA Today article on the tragic death of fourth-year student Casey Schulman posted earlier today makes reference to the memorial service held last night about the MV Explorer, the ship that ferried Schulman and her Semester at Sea classmates around the world this fall.
Specifically, it said that an account of the memorial service would be posted on the ship’s blog, “News From the Helm.” That heart-rending posting is now online.
It includes a link to to bulletin for the memorial service. We’ve often heard that the MV Explorer community becomes very close-knit during its voyages, and the bulletin demonstrates that. Besides Casey’s U.Va. roommate, Katie Dorset, speakers and singers at the service represented Bentley University, the University of Massachusetts-Boston, the University of San Diego, Vanderbilt University, the University of Iowa, George Mason University, Western Illinois University and Shenandoah University. Quite a tribute to both Casey and the program itself.
The post also includes a beautiful, poignant photo (reposted above) of Schulman at the ship’s rail.
There will be a second ceremony tomorrow about the Explorer. According to Michael Zoll of the Institute for Shipboard Education, which runs the semester at Sea program under U.Va.’s academic sponsorship, “Tuesday has been reserved as a Reflection Day, when a traditional maritime ceremony will be performed. The captain will navigate the ship in three full circles at sea, a short ceremony will take place, and shipmates will place flowers in the ocean.”
International,
News,
People,
Semester at Sea,
Student Life | Monday, December 3rd | By: Dan @3:55 pm |
The University’s annual Study Abroad Fair, originally scheduled for Wednesday in the McIntire Amphitheater, will instead take shelter on the third floor of Newcomb Hall, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Come learn about international opportunities!
There is no truth to the rumor that the Semester at Sea ship will take advantage of this week’s deluge to make an appearance.
International,
On Grounds,
Semester at Sea,
Student Life | Tuesday, September 6th | By: Dan @3:37 pm |
Academic dean Mark Thomas, a U.Va. history and economics professor, addresses the fall voyagers.
Our friends at Semester at Sea send along a video (click this link to watch) from the start of the fall voyage, which left Montreal Aug. 26 for a ’round-the-world experience. (This weekend, they’ll be arriving in Casablanca.) Continue reading…
Arts & Sciences,
News,
Semester at Sea,
Thomas Jefferson | Thursday, September 1st | By: Dan @6:18 pm |
UVA Today honcho Marian Anderfuren recently completed a voyage aboard the MV Explorer for approximately four weeks as part of the Semester at Sea program. She vowed to send dispatches, as time and technology allow. This is her final report.
June 21: Just before the MV Explorer ended its Maymester voyage in Nassau last Wednesday, Semester at Sea students, faculty and staff from U.Va. got together at a brief reception, followed by a photo op in Tymitz Square, sort of the ship’s front lobby.
And U.Va. was well represented. The inaugural short-term voyage, which began May 18 and sailed for 26 days, was the first Semester at Sea voyage in which U.Va. students outnumbered all other schools. In all, 32 students and nearly a dozen staff and faculty members – some with spouses and children in tow – took part. Of the 32 U.Va. students, half were from the Engineering School, another Semester at Sea first. (Our photographer, in fact, was another U.Va. staffer, Bob Haschart, who works as a software developer in the U.Va. Library.)
At the front of the photo are Dana Elzey, associate professor of materials science, who was academic dean for the voyage, and Rosalyn Berne, who will return to Thornton Hall this fall as professor of engineering and was the voyage’s executive dean. The photo session was followed, of course, by “The Good Old Song.”
UVA Today honcho Marian Anderfuren is voyaging aboard the MV Explorer for approximately four weeks as part of the Semester at Sea program. She has vowed to send dispatches, as time and technology allow. Today: Katie Jones is a second-year student planning to major in environmental business and Spanish. She is one of almost three dozen U.Va. students on the current Maymester voyage of Semester at Sea, which ends Wednesday in Nassau.
By Katie Jones
Aboard the MV Explorer, June 13, 2011: While the MV Explorer was in Honduras, I signed up for a service visit in the Guachipilin Comayagua community in the rural mountains. With a couple of faculty and staff members and 17 other students, we set off to the small town about three hours away from Puerto Limon.
The few pit stops we made were perfect chances for me to practice the Spanish I have been perfecting for the past couple of years. My interactions have made me realize that if my fellow American travelers smiled more when they tried to communicate with non-English speakers they would be a lot less stressed while traveling. I noticed my friends on this trip often speak in loud English, expecting for that to translate better than a polite nod or shake of the head.
Continue reading…
UVA Today honcho Marian Anderfuren is voyaging aboard the MV Explorer for approximately four weeks as part of the Semester at Sea program. She has vowed to send dispatches, as time and technology allow.
Aboard the MV Explorer, June 5, 2011: Among the 32 U.Va. students on this Maymester voyage of Semester at Sea is Ania Turnier (at right in photo, with the author), whom we introduced to you in UVA Today in 2009. A native of Haiti, Ania, then a first-year student, was organizing a nonprofit called Building Haiti to restore the country’s schools after the earthquake that January.
Continue reading…
UVA Today honcho Marian Anderfuren is voyaging aboard the MV Explorer for approximately four weeks as part of the Semester at Sea program. She has vowed to send dispatches, as time and technology allow.
Aboard the MV Explorer, May 22, 2011: Thousands of miles away, as their fellow students celebrate Finals Weekend, 32 U.Va. students are aboard the MV Explorer for a four-week voyage of discovery and learning with Semester at Sea in the Caribbean and Latin America.
This is a voyage of firsts: First short-term voyage for Semester at Sea. First to focus on the theme of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. And the first in which U.Va. students are the most plentiful, making up nearly 10 percent of the student body.
One of them is Rachel Smith, who will be a third-year biomedical engineering student this fall. She has traveled with engineering professor Garrick Louis to Limpopo, South Africa, where U.Va. faculty and students have been working with their counterparts at the University of Venda to improve water and sanitation systems.
“The first thing you learn is that, no matter how much you prepared, you’re never going to understand the people until you get there,” she said. “If you work hard in the two or three days we’re in each port, you can immerse yourself in the culture and help people find solutions to their problems.”
Continue reading…
Dr. Leigh Grossman, a professor of pediatric medicine and chief of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Division at the U.Va. School of Medicine, whose own international experience started when he father took a sabbatical to India when she was a child, recently led a U.Va. medical team on a 30-day leg on the Semester at Sea voyage.
While there, she offered the following three pieces of wise advice to the voyagers, which would probably apply to anyone studying or even just traveling overseas:
- International education teaches new ways to learn and to live. Put away books, electronic devices and other barriers that insulate you from others and be open to experiencing differences.
- Only in retrospect will you understand how this Semester at Sea education has impacted your life. For now, just know that it will have a profound effect.
- Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone and experience differences in people, places and ideas. Walk the streets, talk to people, use all your senses, because it is only then that true learning will occur.
International,
Medical School,
People,
Semester at Sea | Tuesday, March 16th | By: Dan @5:03 pm |
I’ll admit that sometimes I’m a bit out of touch with popular culture, or at least youthful popular culture. So until this week, I did not know there was such thing as mtvU, which bills itself as “MTV Networks’ Peabody and Emmy Award-winning 24-hour college network-the largest and most comprehensive media network just for college students.”
Surprisingly, the person who called my attention to mtvU’s existence is Farzaneh Milani, a U.Va. professor who teaches in both Studies in Women and Gender and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Culture.
Here’s how it all ties together …
Continue reading…
International,
News,
People,
Semester at Sea,
TV | Friday, October 30th | By: Dan @1:05 pm |
