SAS’s LifeLong Learners

Students will leave their experience on Semester at Sea in four days with friendships that extend beyond those made with classmates. They include bonds with professors, staff, and with a special group of SAS voyagers known as the lifelong learners.

The lifelong learners (better known as the LLLs) are a diverse group of travelers, most of whom have traveled the world throughout their lives, have retired from their jobs, and, for several, are repeat alums of Semester at Sea voyages.

The LLLs created a sort of extended family aboard the MV Explorer. They become the surrogate parents and grandparents for many students, and often keep in touch with them long after a voyage is over. But more than that, the lifelong learners help create an intergenerational learning community and provide different perspectives that can enhance the students’ learning on the ship.

“I think many of the students realize that in lifelong learners they have people who can talk about a place and about experiences,” says Carol Larson, coordinator of the summer voyage’s lifelong learner program and director of UPitt’s study abroad program.

She added: “You see many of the students coming up to us and asking ‘Have you been here before? What should I know?’ I think that community leads to an education that is unique.”

How It Started
Adult learners have sailed with Semester at Sea for almost as long as SAS has been around. However, an organized program—that includes daily meetings with guest speakers and special programs—was created about 16 years ago and has been operating as such ever since. The uniqueness of this sailing experience has inspired repeat lifelong learner voyagers, some as many as 20 times!

“This is an experience of a lifetime, even for lifelong learners,” says Betty Waldron who, with her husband Milt, has sailed on more than a dozen voyages.

The Waldrons were introduced to Semester at Sea by their daughter, who sailed as a student. She encouraged them to come on as lifelong learners. Milt, instead, joined as the doctor for a voyage and continued in that role for many years after and Betty eventually became coordinator of the LLL program when they both sailed. Milt has reprised his role as physician on the Summer 2009 voyage and Betty is co-coordinator this summer.

“We have definitely changed from being on these voyages and we feel very lucky,” says Betty.

A Change for All
Students change as well from their time spent with the lifelong learners.

“It is so nice to sit and talk with people who have such extensive life experiences and have traveled all around the globe,” says student Nhesty Ong. “I enjoy hearing their opinion in class, even if I don’t agree with it. It forces you to think a bit differently and look at things differently. And that’s all part of the experience.”

The intellectual engagement entices many lifelong learners to sail with Semester at Sea, including current lifelong learner Linda Berbrick. “I like learning about the countries I’m going to. I like interacting with the students and with the professors; it’s such a nice community,” says Berbrick, who is sailing for a second time as an LLL.

“You don’t get this when you go on any other cruise or group travel.”

Carol Larson agrees. “We’ve been on the fluffy cruise ships with the feather dancer show at 8 o’clock at night. It’s get old, fast. But to sit over dinner and discuss world politics, to learn a language and culture, to listen to the interport lecturers—it’s incredibly eye-opening.”

Carol’s husband, George Bentrem, has been pleasantly surprised by his first voyage experience. “As a lifelong physician, and with my military experience, I thought I had seen a lot,” he explains. “It was small in comparison to what I’ve seen on this voyage, in terms of a life experience: meeting and talking with people, visiting ports, the classroom work (I’ve attended 4 classes). It’s an expedition of discovery and that’s always fun.”

Learners Who Span Generations
This summer’s lifelong learners are a diverse group of individuals who range in age from their early 20s to their late 80s. They include a founding member of the Granny Peace Brigade, retirees (school teachers, physicians, business leaders), and professionals on leave.

Included in the group are three working teachers who make up SAS’s “Teachers at Sea” program. The program is open to all certified K-12 teachers and allows them to take course for which they can gain professional development credits.

Jenny Kim is one of three teachers on the Summer ’09 voyage. “This is my first time on a ship and my first time crossing the Atlantic, ever,” says Kim, a high school history teacher in northern California. “I’ve been teaching about all of these countries and for me to never have seen them is shameful. But now I can go back to my students with actual pictures of these places and stories.”

Stories and Relationships for a Lifetime
Jenny and the rest of the lifelong learners this summer have developed relationships as strong as those the students have made with one another. They are relationships that will carry on for years, as is the case with the Waldrons and other repeat LLL voyagers.

“We take something away from every voyage no matter how many times we’ve done it,” Betty says. “It’s a special experience. One that just makes you want to come back.”

Click on the image at right to watch the YouTube video about Semester at Sea's Lifelong Learner program.