Welcome Aboard!

 
[If you've come looking for an extraordinary study abroad experience, you will certainly find it here.]

What is The Scholar Ship?

The Scholar Ship is a globally recognized academic program aboard a transformed passenger ship hosting students on semester-long voyages around the world. Participants from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to co-create life-changing experiences that develop their intercultural competence and foster friendships reaching the far corners of the world. 

Our experiential-based program provides students an extraordinary opportunity to integrate education and travel unlike any other program. As we travel from country to country over a 16-week semester, students live and learn in a  dynamic multicultural environment aboard our ship. When in port (average visit is seven days), students participate in academic field study, community service, shore excursions and independent travel. 

To succeed in this increasingly interdependent world, you need more than linguistic abilities. You need the intercultural knowledge and understanding that comes from experiences among many cultures. This is what The Scholar Ship can offer you.

A message for you from our president >

 

Alumni Interview

Ricky Alexander studied on the inaugural voyage and shares his view of the experience

How did The Scholar Ship change your views of the world?

The Scholar Ship changed my views of the world dramatically. Through immersion in a multitude of cultures around the world as well as on the ship, I came to better understand and appreciate the diverse ways in which culturally unique populations perceive the world. I also gained a new awareness about the individual variation that exists even within a culture and how stereotyping and biases perpetuate systemic social injustice in our world. In addition, learning about new cultural landscapes first-hand allowed me to grapple with my own identity and the preconceptions inherent to my background and experiences. Living with people from over forty countries and visiting four continents around the globe allowed me to reflect deeply upon my core values and begin to discern a global ethic by which I wish to live my life.

Read Ricky's and other interviews >

Moments of Inspiration

An excerpt from blog, “Kasee’s Scholar Ship Adventure”

Posted Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Cape Town

"We went to an afterschool program in a black township and talked and played games with the teenagers/children there. The children then performed 2 short plays for us which included these amazing evangelical songs. It was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen or heard. These teenagers are so strong when their lives are so hard. They go to this program (a shack-like building with benches) to get away from all the crime and danger in the townships. They performed plays and sang about the trials of their lives including violence, discrimination, and even rape. They were so happy to have us there and they were so nice to us. They kept saying thank you to us for coming and I couldn't believe they were thanking us. They let us into their world and it was so powerful. I stood up to thank them and couldn't help crying in awe of their strength and dedication to living good lives and pushing out the bad that surrounds them on so many levels. We were all quite moved by their examples, and after taking millions of pictures with them, walked away different people.”

Kasee Moore is an undergraduate student hailing from Texas, USA, currently studying in the Conflict Studies Learning Circle aboard the January 2008 voyage.

View Moments of Inspiration Archive >