Mission
To educate individuals with the global understanding necessary to address the challenges of our interdependent world. With the world as our classroom, our unique shipboard program integrates multiple-country study, interdisciplinary coursework, and hands-on field experiences for meaningful engagement in the global community.
Thursday. We greeted 476 students today, and the Medical and Mental Health team said hello to pretty much every one of them. They were so excited and nervous to be on the ship. I can tell the business majors by their extended hands and firm shakes. We have a nice representation of 15 International students from Singapore, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and a few other countries.
Damian, Mary, Ann and Greg
As a psychologist who works and teaches in the Mental Health field, many of the students I interact with here are not the students who would be in my classroom or in my office. There are nervous about the adventure, but do not have the type of social struggles that impair individuals who could not imagine a voyage and adventure like this. I wish every member of my MFT community could be here. As much as we talk about a global perspective and multicultural perspective, there is an added layer of immersion when one pulls up in a new land and navigates from the perspective of visitor, and the "foreigners" are in the position of power as our hosts. I look forward to the humbling experience among the participants as their social media tools fail them and they are forced to be in the moment and the day. The opportunities for reflection and transformation are bountiful.
Goodbye to Halifax. We are on a voyage that covers four continents and the ocean that connects them.
Thursday. We greeted 476 students today, and the Medical and Mental Health team said hello to pretty much every one of them. They were so excited and nervous to be on the ship. I can tell the business majors by their extended hands and firm shakes. We have a nice representation of 15 International students from Singapore, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and a few other countries.
Mary, your expression of experience is beautiful! I'm only just now learning of your blogs and this is only my first reading, but already I'm anxious to read it all, painful as it may be. "Painful" because I know, or remember, the life-expanding qualities of travel like this. It must be fantastic to see the students gaining this experience that, for many I'm guessing, will detour their lives, and more so their minds, into a much wider and enriched path.
ReplyDeleteI won't keep you, but one last thing. I LOVE "...as their social media tools fail them..." This is life! One of the truly wonderful sides of it. I'm glad you and Mik are there, and I'm looking forward to sharing more life with you guys when you return.
Much love,
Jayme & the gang