Ihab Anwar is an exchange student at the University of Rhode Island who spent the Fall 2014 semester on board the MV Explorer, where he was involved in the Semester at Sea program. The program is intended to provide students with a global understanding and prepare them for leadership roles in an increasingly interdependent world. Although he originally declared his major to be marine biology, he says he is thinking about switching to political science.

1. Ihab Anwar: Understanding the
Diversity
https://ihabanwaruk.wordpress.com/

2. Ihab Anwar is a college st udent f rom
Manchest er, England, who is at t ending t he
Universit y of Rhode I sland. He is an
excellent st udent and commit t ed t o his
st udies, and has consist ent ly been named t o
t he Dean' s List . And yet he spent almost no
t ime on t he universit y' s Kingst on, Rhode
I sland campus in t he f all of 2014.

3. That is because he was t aking par t in t he
Semest er at Sea program, a st udy abroad
program t hat t ook place on boar d t he MV
Explorer . He and hundr eds of ot her
st udent s cir cumnavigat ed t he globe dur ing
t he 108-day voyage t hat began on August
24t h when t hey weighed anchor at t he Port
of Sout hampt on in England.

4. The purpose of t he program is t o pr ovide
st udent s wit h a deeper under st anding of
global issues and t he complexit ies of
int ernat ional r elat ions, and t o pr epar e t hem
t o become global cit izens and leaders of
t omor row. The Fall 2014 program was
of f er ed in academic par t nership wit h t he
Universit y of Virginia and includes
exper ient ial st udy, int erdisciplinary
cour sewor k, and f ield labs in most of t he
f if t een count ries t hey st opped at .

5. Ihab Anwar also lear ned a lit t le somet hing
about love. "Met a girl named J enna," he
wrot e in t he diar y he kept along t he way.
"Sophomor e at t he Univer sit y of Michigan in
Ann Arbor. Psychology maj or . A real
sweet heart . She' s in my I nt r oduct ion t o
Public Healt h class and we t alked f or half an
hour af t er class t oday." He and J enna quickly
became good f r iends and spent a lot of t ime
t oget her during t he mont hs of t he Semest er
at Sea program. I t was unclear , by j our ney' s
end, whet her t heir f riendship went beyond a
meet ing of t he minds, alt hough he does
record t hat t he t wo t ook a long walk on a
beach in Barbados t oget her and held hands
f or much of t he way.

6. Af t er t he Semest er at Sea voyage ended in
Fort Lauder dale, Flor ida on December 8,
I hab Anwar made a long, f inal ent r y in his
diary. "I f I have one cr it icism of t he
program it ' s t hat t he t ime we wer e able t o
spend in each count ry was t oo shor t . The
classes on boar d provided much about t he
hist or y and cult ur e of t he count r ies we
visit ed, but mor e t ime of f t he ship would
have been bet t er . Especially if I could have
had more t ime on solid gr ound wit h J enna!"

7. He added t hat t he Semest er at Sea
program provided him wit h invaluable
insight s int o compar at ive wor ld cult ur es,
and helped him t o under st and t hat while
t her e is gr eat r ichness and diversit y in t he
wor ld, t her e are mor e similarit ies t han
dif f erences t o it s people.

8. https://www.facebook.com/DrIhabAnwar
https://twitter.com/IhabAnwarUK
https://plus.google.com/u/0/107556091043541050058
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/IhabAnwaruk