SVHS grad spends Semester at Sea

SVHS grad goes aquatic during senior year at San Francisco State|

Rather than study abroad, Sonoma Valley High graduate Arianna Schill, ’12, decided to study aboard.

Schill spent a semester last year during her senior year at San Francisco State University studying in the floating university known as Semester at Sea.

The cruise ship program has been operating since 1963. It consists of full-time international students taking accredited classes from international faculty.

According to Schill, the program integrates multiple country study, interdisciplinary course work and in-country hands-on field experience, using the classroom, the ship community and in-country experiences.

Schill visited 11 countries, 13 ports over 100 days on four continents from England, through the Mediterranean, North Africa, South America, and the Caribbean and Central America.

The countries included England, Italy, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Trinidad, Tobago, through the Panama Canal and Costa Rica.

Schill was drawn not only by the fun of living life at sea, but also by the renowned guest lecturers from the business and social leadership world community.

She also had some amazing adventures, including trekking into the desert on a camel for three days; seeing all the refugees in Greece; and riding a mule on the Greek island of Hydra.

On board, Schill played the drums in the SAS band, became involved in the ship’s LGBQ group and completed in the program’s Sea Olympics.

Schill said, “The experience of interacting with other people and students during this semester has broadened my view of the world. I also got a chance to experience how others, including LGBTQ people, experience life in their own countries.”

She said that she has created lifetime friendships with students from the semester and that the semester at sea was the highlight of her four years in college.

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