Imagine heading off to college on a cruise ship.  Instead of settling in on a campus, you would visit eleven countries in just over one hundred days.

That’s what eight WKU students will do next week when they embark on Semester at Sea.  Amy Bingham has details in this week’s “View from the Hill”.

It’s like a floating college.  “Semester at Sea”, sponsored by the University of Virginia,  literally goes around the world with more than 500  students and seventy faculty on board.

WKU will have a real presence on Semester at Sea this fall when eight of our brightest students set sail on the trip of a lifetime.
 
“Semester at Sea is one of the most unique educational programs in the world, in fact, it’s the only one of its kind.”
 
“I will absolutely guarantee you that the students coming back are not going to be the same students that leave.”

WKU Scholar in Residence Bernard Strenecky knows what he’s talking about.  He’s part of Semester at Sea’s Alumni Board of Directors and the ships Director of Service Learning.

“There are a set of things that are best taught outside a university.”

Junior Kaitlin Hartley of Versailles is one of eight WKU honors students preparing for the voyage.
 
“I think it will be a really fun environment to be on the ship with all the students..I love to travel and you get to go places you might not usually go.”

Kaitlin and her mom recently had a chance to ask last minute questions at a  Semester at Sea orientation.

Nancy Hartley says she was on board with the opportunity pretty quickly after she heard about it.
 
“My first question was have you lost anybody and they said we haven’t lost anybody yet and I said o.k. we can continue with this now.”

The students will be stopping in places like India, China, Spain and Japan.  While sailing from port to port they will be  immersed in studying each country’s history and culture.
 
“you’ll never be the same this is a life altering experience and isn’t that what education is all about.”

This will be the 100th voyage for Semester at Sea which has been around officially since the 1960’s.

The cruise begins August 28th in Halifax, Nova Scotia and ends December 14th in San Diego.

With this week’s “View from the Hill”, I’m Amy Bingham.