Your support of All Hands on Deck — The Campaign for Semester at Sea will increase funding for programmatic and scholarship support and continue our mission of preparing students to succeed in an increasingly complex and interconnected global society. With all hands on deck, we can ensure that Semester at Sea’s future will be brighter than ever. Gifts for the All Hands on Deck campaign, unless otherwise designated, will be directed to the SAS Annual Fund.

Want to make a difference at Semester at Sea both today and tomorrow? Support our newly created Anchor Fund! Gifts designated to the Anchor Fund support both the Voyager Scholarship Fund (75% of your gift), which grants immediate scholarship aid to deserving students, and Semester at Sea's Scholarship Endowment (25% of your gift), which is held in perpetuity and provides scholarship aid based on current 3-year average investment returns.

Glory Burns was more than a professor to all who sailed with her on the Spring 2018 Voyage. She was a friend, a mentor, a teacher, a curious lifelong learner, and so much more. Each spring, a need-based scholarship in her honor will be awarded to a deserving student who exemplifies the passion and spirit of Glory's extraordinary life.

Founded by members of the Young Alumni Council, this scholarship serves to support students who are sailing on a Semester at Sea Fall Voyage. As recent alumni (within the last 10 years of our voyages), we strongly believe in the power of community and expanding the horizons of our soon-to-be alumni. We understand that sailing on a voyage is incredibly life changing, and that with the generous support of donations we can help turn this dream into a reality. 

Phillip Randall McDonald embodied the mission of Semester at Sea - adventure, camaraderie, curiosity, environmental consciousness, and empathy for all peoples around the globe. He was a proud Texas Tech Red Raider whose joy and awe for life were contagious. All who entered his orbit were uplifted and inspired. Phil passed in 2020 of complications from hemophilia. He was an organ donor, gifting his body so others could experience new life. Phil is remembered and honored by SAS friends with this scholarship dedicated to students who demonstrate financial need and attend college in Texas. The aid awarded in Phil’s memory shall be utilized for SAS sponsored in-country field programs. Phil reveled in and cherished the in-country adventures he shared with his shipmates.

The Leslie Smedley Field Program Support Fund seeks to honor and celebrate the impact of Leslie Smedley, who served as the Assistant to the Academic Dean on the Spring 1990 and Spring 2001 voyages. Leslie has devoted her career to supporting college students' study abroad experiences. She takes pride knowing that the work she does makes a difference in the lives of the young adults she serves so that they can make a difference in the world. Leslie is remembered for positively impacting the lives of countless voyagers, particularly those who were working during their voyage, by encouraging a balance of study and adventure. Each semester, the Smedley Fund will provide selected Student Assistants with financial support that will allow them to enroll in Semester at Sea Field Programs.

Abby Vieira passed away on August 22, 2021. Abby and her entire family have long supported Semester at Sea, providing students who would not have been able to do so otherwise the opportunity to sail with Semester at Sea. Please consider making a gift to the Abby Crumpacker Vieira Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of our dear shipmate, Abby.

“I could live in the middle of the ocean forever. It is my happy place. You know how there are places where your body just feels right without even thinking about it? For me it’s the middle of the ocean when I think to myself: ‘I’m home.’ I didn’t know if I could go on this voyage due to all the cancer treatments I have had in the last year. I was given medical clearance just two weeks before we embarked. Living in the medical world has been a full time job, so it has been such a gift to get away from that and be able to breathe again! This voyage has put me back together again, and this community has been salve to my soul.

To be in the middle of the ocean where there’s nothing but horizon and sky and clouds and sunsets and stars—it’s so vast that it does something to you. It can make you feel like a tiny speck, but it also gives you this reverence for what you’re looking at. You can’t not be affected by leaning on the railing looking out. Our planet in the universe. How could you not be affected by that? Most people have no idea what it feels like to circumnavigate the world one nautical mile at a time. People just can’t fathom what we’re doing and even a lot of people who are doing it can’t fathom what we’re doing.

So when I’m looking out on the horizon, I think about how grateful I am, how lucky I am, how much joy and love I have in my life. It gives me such an appreciation for the world outside my world, the world outside any of our worlds, and it gives me this incredible feeling of calm, like everything is going to be alright. You can only live life in forward motion, and that’s a very freeing thing. Before I came on this voyage, my doctor said ‘you should not go on this voyage. In a perfect world you should not be going.’ And he ended by saying: ‘But you know what Abby? It’s not a perfect world.’”

-Abby Crumpacker Vieira, wife of Executive Dean Dr. Bob Vieira, who sailed on her seventh Semester at Sea voyage in Fall 2018.

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