Your Adventure Begins on Shore
At the beginning of every program, up to 25 students come together on SEA’s residential campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a world-renowned hub of oceanographic research and discovery located on beautiful Cape Cod. With your fellow classmates, you’ll build a living and learning community, and undertake coursework designed to prepare you personally and intellectually for the second half of your experience at sea.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
The SEA Semester Campus
SEA’s Woods Hole campus is ideally located within a world renowned ocean research community which includes the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Woods Hole Research Center. The SEA campus, situated on beautiful grounds, consists of a main building housing a classroom, library, lecture hall, computer room, library, map room, and faculty and administration offices. Students reside in double and triple rooms in five residential cottages where they study and socialize together, prepare their own meals, and evolve from classmates to shipmates in preparation for going to sea.
The Adventure Continues at Sea
Following your shore component, you’ll join one of our two sailing research vessels on an academic expedition in the Atlantic, Caribbean, or Pacific to put classroom theory into real-world practice. You might sail thousands of miles across the open ocean for a truly blue-water experience, or you might investigate a smaller area of the marine environment more closely, engaging with coastal communities through a variety of port stops.
Regardless of the program, you’ll become an integral member of the ship’s company at sea, fully participating in the scientific mission and sailing operations of the vessel. You‘ll be exposed to every aspect of shipboard life: from employing celestial navigation, to collecting and processing oceanographic samples, to helping prepare meals in the galley. A phased leadership approach will allow you to assume the majority of shipboard responsibilities under the watchful eye of faculty and crew.
When you step off the ship, you’ll take away with you academic credits, newfound confidence, skills, knowledge about yourself and the world, and a sense of direction that will serve you well throughout your life.