Dejah Strang is a senior History major from Katy, Texas, who spent fall 2017 traveling around the world for Semester at Sea. Strang chose to participate in Semester at Sea because of the volume of places she would have the opportunity to visit. During her trip, she visited nine different countries over a three month period, “The entire experience seemed like something I could get on board for,” said Strang.
She is a member of the Honors Program (HP6) which allowed her to travel to Xi’an, China twice in 2016 and 2017. Because of these experiences, Strang wanted to broaden her cultural horizons by traveling outside of the country again. “I wanted to know and see more, especially being a history major,” said Strang, “I study about a lot of places, but I’ve never seen them, so I felt like it was almost a disservice to myself and my major.” In the spring semester of 2017, after finding out she had been accepted into the Semester at Sea program, she applied for a scholarship through the Office for International Affairs. “They were really helpful throughout the whole process,” said Strang.
Her goals before leaving were to visit historical sites and truly enjoy herself, “I wanted to be able to say I went to these countries and did not waste time,” said Strang. Being in an environment where there was lack of diversity was something Strang saw as beneficial to all who were involved. Because of this, she was able to share her experiences with students who were unfamiliar with interacting with people of color. “They were curious and wanted to know about my experience attending an HBCU and felt like I was a good avenue to ask questions,” said Strang, “I like that I was a part of that and opened that up to them.”
While on the ship, students had a 12-hour maximum academic load and participated in class daily. They spent four days in the classroom on the ship and a week in each country. “They made it a point to make the classes geared toward what we were doing,” said Strang. She took classes in Anthropology, Global Studies, Cultural Geography, and Africa and the African Diaspora. In her Anthropology class, they discussed the Catalonian community in Spain and how that was relevant to the time they were trying to declare independence while visiting Spain. “It was not like I was on the ship learning whatever; it was specific to the countries we were visiting,” said Strang.
One of her favorite port stops during her semester was Japan because she had been interested in the country’s history and culture for a while. “Japan met all my expectations,” said Strang, “Everything about it was just so easy compared to everywhere else.” Her roommate spoke Japanese, so that was beneficial when communicating. Studying abroad is something she thinks is important for students to experience, “having that kind of cultural experience, I feel like it is rewarding and broadens your horizons,” said Strang. Although the University’s community and campus might be small, interacting with individuals outside the Prairie View, Texas and American communities are experiences she deems essential.
In the future, she would like to return to some of the places she stopped during her semester at sea to get a more robust experience. “It’s not cultural immersion,” said Strang, “You visit and go to the big places if you don’t sleep, and I want to go back and be able to do more and see the things I missed.” When she left America to begin her semester at sea, her first stop was Germany. It also happens to be on the top of her list of places to visit again.