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"Taste" of Ten Countries

Name: McKenzie Price
Major/Minor at WSU: Child Development with P-3 Teaching Certificate
Expected date of graduation: December 2009
Program type: Study Abroad – Semester at Sea
City, Country: Various

McKenzie Price visited more countries in one semester than most of us can identify on a map. Through the Semester at Sea program, she docked at ten different locations including Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and Japan. McKenzie’s experience gave her the opportunity to “get a good taste of a bunch of different countries; countries that I probably wouldn’t have visited otherwise.”

“Semester at Sea provides study abroad opportunities for the exploration and study of many of the people, places and cultures around the world,” states their website (www.semesteratsea.com). Students live and study aboard a 24,000-ton passenger ship designed as a floating university. Voyages last for one semester during Fall, Spring, or Summer terms. For McKenzie living on the ship with students from all over America was a great experience, but she says that she most enjoyed “seeing how other people in our world live and getting to know them.”

One of her favorite experiences took place in India. McKenzie admits she was skeptical about entering the country, but what she encountered changed her outlook completely. “What you don’t realize is just how kind the people are until you go there. Every where in India that I went I was welcomed with open arms, smiles and tea!” she says.

McKenzie Price has returned back to WSU and is currently working toward her degree in Child Development with hopes of attaining her teaching certificate. She shares that the knowledge she has gained is just a small part of the overall learning experience she had while abroad. “The most valuable part of my experience was everything that I learned in those short four months. I don’t mean what I learned in classes - though I did learn quite a bit - I mean what I learned about life. Through my time in different countries I learned more life lessons than I had in the first 19 years of my life.”