Ihab Anwar: Understanding the Diversity

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Ihab Anwar Understanding the Diversity
https//ihabanwaruk.wordpress.com/
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Ihab Anwar is a college student from Manchester,
England, who is attending the University of Rhode
Island. He is an excellent student and committed
to his studies, and has consistently been named
to the Dean's List. And yet he spent almost no
time on the university's Kingston, Rhode Island
campus in the fall of 2014.
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That is because he was taking part in the
Semester at Sea program, a study abroad program
that took place on board the MV Explorer. He and
hundreds of other students circumnavigated the
globe during the 108-day voyage that began on
August 24th when they weighed anchor at the Port
of Southampton in England.
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The purpose of the program is to provide students
with a deeper understanding of global issues and
the complexities of international relations, and
to prepare them to become global citizens and
leaders of tomorrow. The Fall 2014 program was
offered in academic partnership with the
University of Virginia and includes experiential
study, interdisciplinary coursework, and field
labs in most of the fifteen countries they
stopped at.
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Ihab Anwar also learned a little something about
love. "Met a girl named Jenna," he wrote in the
diary he kept along the way. "Sophomore at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Psychology
major. A real sweetheart. She's in my
Introduction to Public Health class and we talked
for half an hour after class today." He and Jenna
quickly became good friends and spent a lot of
time together during the months of the Semester
at Sea program. It was unclear, by journey's end,
whether their friendship went beyond a meeting of
the minds, although he does record that the two
took a long walk on a beach in Barbados together
and held hands for much of the way.
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After the Semester at Sea voyage ended in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida on December 8, Ihab Anwar
made a long, final entry in his diary. "If I have
one criticism of the program it's that the time
we were able to spend in each country was too
short. The classes on board provided much about
the history and culture of the countries we
visited, but more time off the ship would have
been better. Especially if I could have had more
time on solid ground with Jenna!"
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He added that the Semester at Sea program
provided him with invaluable insights into
comparative world cultures, and helped him to
understand that while there is great richness and
diversity in the world, there are more
similarities than differences to its people.
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