This popular and intensive program provides 24 students with the unique opportunity not only to study the ocean environment, but to live it. Students earn from 12 to 16 academic credits, spanning the humanities and sciences, while undertaking the responsibility of crewing a large gaff-rigged schooner, the Spirit of Massachusetts . SEAmester students sail almost 3,000 miles in nine weeks, stopping at carefully selected ports of call, from the eastern seacoast of the United States to island outposts in the Bahamas and Caribbean Island. One day the campus will be a tropical lagoon, the next day the ruins of a sugar mill, later a Carolina mud flat or a wall 100 feet below the Gulf Stream.
Field work includes studies on the finest reefs in the Caribbean to the mud flats of North Carolina.
Beginning with the spring 2001 semester, we will offer an all-new SEAmester voyage along the California Coast, Mexican Baja Peninsula and the Sea of Cortez. Known as SEAmester West, the trip will begin in Long Beach, California, and sail south into Mexico. Students will have the opportunity to observe blue and fin whales in the Sea of Cortez, visit fascinating ports along the Baja Peninsula, and study Pacific Coast estuaries, island and coastal ecosystems, environmental issues, natural and maritime history, and many other topics. Any student who has completed at least one year of college and carries a cumulative average of 2.5 or better is eligible for this extraordinary experience. The cost of SEAmester is comparable to a semester on campus, and most Financial Aid is applicable.