Margaux Burnham, an alumna from the Fall 2010 semester is currently a junior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has recently completed a semester abroad with the SEA Semester program. Margaux’s program included five weeks spent on the Woods Hole campus in Cape Cod. She then spent the rest of her term sailing from Barcelona to Majorca, the Straits of Gibraltar, Madeira the Canary Islands and Cadiz, Spain. Participants in her program included herself and 13 other college students. Every student on the program takes three core classes plus two electives. One of Margaux’s classes was focused on the concept of sense of place, very similar to some of the learning conducted at The Island School.
The actual sailing aspect of SEA Semester turned out to be very similar to The Island School’s new sailing program. Margaux and the other students were expected to take turns manning watches at night as well as various duties during the day doing everything up to and including navigating and steering. The program constantly pushed Margaux outside of her mental and physical comfort zones, especially while at sea and battling the effects of seasickness while still needing to be a productive and effective member of the team. Margaux wants to give a shoutout to her Fall 2010 semester and encourages anyone in college who is interested in a non-traditional semester abroad program to consider taking a look at SEA semester