With election looming and Middle East conflict ongoing, Semester at Sea aims to build community, understanding and dialogue onboard
Building on lessons from the spring, SAS is introducing U.N.-backed program, among other efforts
With a contentious national election season underway, and ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, campuses across the U.S. are preparing for another challenging semester on campus.
Semester at Sea, which will take 433 students to 10 countries on three continents this fall, is doing likewise. But our 61-year-old nonprofit, whose ship set sail from IJmuiden, The Netherlands, on Sept. 9, expects a United Nations-backed program, staff and faculty trainings and preparation, among other initiatives, to allow our floating campus community to have difficult conversations in ways that build connections and understanding, rather than push people apart.
Soliya Dialogue Facilitation Certification Training
Just last month, SAS selected 20 voyagers to participate in a Dialogue Facilitation Certification Training offered through Soliya, which trains individuals and organizations on how to have respectful discussions and build community within complex organizations and groups. The selected voyagers (15 students, 3 faculty members, a student life staffer, and an adult Lifelong Learner participant) will get 20 hours of training during the voyage’s first port stay in Lisbon, Portugal, Sept. 17-19. The training, which usually costs $2,000 per participant, is being provided for free using donor funds.
We will ask the newly certified facilitators to join the voyage’s Executive Dean, Dean of Students, Academic Dean, professors and staff, their peers, and others, in making room for opposing points of view and challenging discussions that arise during the semester. This will include hosting a series of shipwide dialogue sessions as well as smaller discussions around topics important to the voyagers.
Voyage Leadership Training and Team Building
Like other campuses, Semester at Sea has been considering how its policies contribute to creating an inclusive space and one where folks can express their perspectives and views. Each summer, the administrators, faculty, and staff hired for each upcoming voyage convene on the campus of Colorado State University, SAS’s academic partner, for several days of training and team building. This summer, these “staculty” (faculty and staff) engaged in training with the Moral Courage Project on turning contentious issues into constructive conversations. SAS administrators also discussed events that occurred on the most recent voyage and lessons learned concerning, among other things, facilitating dialogue and answering parent concerns. (Read more about the spring voyage below)
“Our mission is to see students design ‘bold solutions to global challenges’,” says Chief Program Officer Laura Strohminger. “That sounds daunting until students realize how impactful their personal choices and approaches can be—locally and globally. We hope these 20 facilitators, along with our voyage staculty, will convene and lead the kind of difficult but necessary conversations we expect our students to have on our ship, when they return to their home campus, and then when entering the workplace.”
Voyager Impact
Soliya’s Executive Director Salma Elbeblawi, in a recent letter to Soliya supporters and partners, explained the program’s intended impact this way: “to address polarization on campus, bringing students together from across dividing lines into dialogue.”
As Strohminger wrote in a letter inviting all voyages to apply for one of the 20 facilitator roles, the training is expected to provide:
- Deepened understanding of dialogue facilitation and experience promoting constructive engagement across differences.
- Tangible facilitation skills, tools, and strategies to address various group dynamics, manage emotions, and enable learning through conflict.
The invitation also suggested selected students would:
- Grow (their) abilities in promoting effective group collaboration.
- Develop tangible intercultural communication skills and effective leadership to proliferate a culture of inclusion.
- Increase self-awareness through better understanding one’s own communication patterns and challenges.
More information
- Founded in 1963, Semester at Sea takes students to 10 or more countries on three continents each fall and spring semester. Colorado State University has been the program’s academic partner since 2016.
- The Fall 2024 itinerary, including diversionary ports, is available on our website.
- Bios of voyage faculty and staff, including the Fall 2024 Executive Dean, Academic Dean, Dean of Student Life and Care Team Director are available on the FA24 Faculty and Staff page.
- Semester at Sea’s Fall 2023 Voyage was originally bound for Jordan and the United Arab Emirates but diverted following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the conflict that followed. On the Spring 2024 Voyage, a visiting lecturer’s unexpected comments on Israel ignited debate on board. (Read more at “Navigating Challenging Conversations with Compassion.”)
