SEA’s Director of Stewardship Monica Bowman recently had the opportunity to check in with SEA Semester alumnus, Dr. Joshua Weil.  They spoke about his new position as emergency preparedness lead for the Permanente Medical Group at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, and how during major health and safety crises, including this time of COVID-19, he finds himself calling upon his SEA Semester experience to inform his approach to leadership, trust, and being a good shipmate. 

Are you catching up on reading during this period of social distancing? We asked our faculty to recommend books - both new and classics - that they’ve found entertaining, informative, or inspiring. Here’s what they came up with.

In addition to coordinating SEA’s assistant scientist team, SEA’s Science Program Coordinator Kimberly Reed Nutt oversees SEA’s oceanographic database and processes requests for use of data collected during SEA programs from interested students and collaborating research scientists.  Over the past 50 years, SEA has sailed extensively in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and collected data on annually recurring cruise tracks, allowing us to investigate ocean questions over time.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
“UNCW’s Julian Murray-Brown ‘21 Spends a Semester at Sea”
By Alex Churchill
Univeristy of North Carolina Wilmington News

Julian Murray-Brown ’21 is one of 25 undergraduate students from universities across the United States who boarded the SSV Robert C. Seamans 134-foot brigantine in early February. The six-week study abroad program offered by the Sea Education Association allowed the students to study how humans have influenced New Zealand’s marine environment.

Many SEA Semester alumni are organizing virtual class reunions on Zoom, which we think is great!

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Part of the Crew
By Meghan Kita
Muhlenberg College News

One thing Devin Goldsmith ’21, a psychology major and innovation & entrepreneurship minor, appreciates about Muhlenberg is how easy it is to build relationships with professors. She wanted something similar in a study abroad program, and she found it in SEA Semester. The program packs 38 people—students, teachers, crew—onto a 130-foot sailing vessel. (That’s about 43 yards, less than half the length of a football field.)

Sea Education Association in the NEWS
“Microplastics research needs innovation, health focus”
By Marla Broadfoot
Environmental Factor
National Institutue of Environmental Health Sciences

Experts from the environmental science and health communities met Jan. 27-28 in Washington, D.C., to discuss microplastics, the tiny pieces of plastic now being detected throughout the environment. The workshop was organized by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and sponsored by NIEHS.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Studying New Zealand’s Oceans
Bennington College News, Feb. 25, 2020

Ella Simon ‘22, who studies Visual Arts, Public Action, and Environmental Studies, is among a select group of 25 undergraduates from diverse US institutions who are spending this semester sailing through the waters of New Zealand. Their goal is to study one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century: human impacts on the environment.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Exploring ‘Mars on Earth’ and Spending the Semester at Sea
By Nicole Militello
Denver University News, Feb. 25, 2020

Olivia DeWitt remembers anxiously waiting in the University of Denver’s Magness Arena to find out where she would study abroad. After months of dreaming, interviewing and boosting her GPA, it all came down to a little luggage tag in her hand, her destination hidden inside.

WOODS HOLE, MASS. — 25 undergraduates from a variety of U.S. colleges and universities recently arrived aboard the research vessel SSV Robert C. Seamans to continue their Winter/Spring 2020 SEA Semester program sailing through the waters of New Zealand. Their goal is to study one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century: human impacts on the environment.