SEA’s High School Summer Seminars Provide Online Portal to the Ocean World
This summer, high school students interested in the world of ocean studies don’t have to travel to the oceanographic research hub of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It’s coming to them. After a successful launch in 2020, SEA is offering an online program designed for high school students from around country – and the world – who share a passion for ocean science, want to make a difference through ocean conservation, and prepare for college at the same time. READ MORE >>
Sea Currents Blogs

COVID-19 Updates From SEA
Throughout the pandemic, SEA has continued to operate programs on campus as well as aboard both ships, with an emphasis on health and safety and through flexible responses to ever-evolving challenges. Read more about how we’re successfully delivering on our mission to educate ocean scholars, stewards, and leaders. READ MORE >>

FEATURED PROGRAM:
Sustainability in Pacific Island Communities and Ecosystems
FALL 2022: October 3, 2022 – December 23, 2022
FALL 2023: August 21, 2023 – November 15, 2023
Explore the pacific islands in this place-based and comparative environmental studies semester. Visit several South Pacific islands to confront challenging questions of colonial conflict, cultural identity, and environmental justice, and to examine relationships between political structures, culture, and the natural environment.
Adventure with a purpose
Sea Education Association is a world-renowned study abroad organization focused on the ocean. We are a global teaching, learning and research community dedicated to the exploration, understanding and stewardship of marine and maritime environments. Located in the oceanographic research hub of Woods Hole,Massachusetts, since 1971 we’ve educated more than 10,000 college, gap year, and high school students about the ocean. We’re dedicated to empowering students with life-changing sea voyages of scientific and cultural discovery, academic rigor, and personal growth. Our programs feature an interdisciplinary curriculum and dynamic leadership development experience at sea aboard tall ships and onshore.
Step aboard our tall ships
Corwith Cramer was designed specifically for SEA in 1987 in Bilbao, Spain. She is a 134-foot steel brigantine built as a research vessel for operation under sail. The qualities that made our original vessel R/V Westward both versatile and seaworthy were incorporated into the design of SSV Corwith Cramer.
Robert C. Seamans is a 134-foot steel brigantine and is the most sophisticated oceanographic research/sailing school vessel ever built in the United States. Improvements in design and equipment, including a wet/dry laboratory and larger library, classroom, and computer laboratory, enhance the SEA academic program.
WORLD CLASS FACILITIES
We like to say we have three campuses: our shore facilities in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and our two tall ship research vessels, the SSV Corwith Cramer and the SSV Robert C. Seamans.
Environmental research
All majors welcome
Life & leadership skills
No sailing experience necessary
ABOUT SEA
SEA is a global teaching, learning and research community dedicated to the exploration, understanding and stewardship of marine and maritime environments. SEA empowers students with life-changing sea voyages of scientific and cultural discovery, academic rigor and personal growth. Our programs feature an interdisciplinary curriculum and dynamic leadership-development experience – at sea aboard tall ships and on shore.
Humans depend upon the ocean. The future of the ocean depends upon you.
SEA provides an experiential opportunity to gather firsthand knowledge that will influence students’ lifelong relationships with the ocean. As our society becomes more aware of how integral the oceans are to the planet, from climate patterns to energy production to the origins of life itself, we must also understand how to conserve these important resources. Moving beyond the textbook toward practical application, hands-on research, and personal experience, SEA prepares students to take a more active role in solving today’s environmental problems.
SEA was founded in 1971 by a small group led by Corwith “Cory” Cramer, Jr. and Edward “Sandy” MacArthur. Cory was a leader, both in the world of the classroom and in the world of sailing, and a passionate advocate of learning by doing. Developing an understanding of the ocean and of its powerful role in the environment presented Cory with a unique challenge to which he formulated a unique response.
Undergraduate research is a cornerstone of SEA programs, with an emphasis on field-based study in the marine and social sciences. SEA faculty and staff are active in their respective fields through grant-funded research projects, participation in professional conferences, and publication in scholarly journals.
Faculty encourage SEA Semester students to contribute new aspects to ongoing research or to develop their own avenues of inquiry, as they guide students through the entire research process from defining the scope of study to final presentation of their work. Many students continue their research upon return to their home institutions, using the field data collected at SEA as the basis of capstone or senior thesis projects. Others remain involved in the research they contributed to during their time at SEA and are subsequently invited as co-authors on presentations and publications resulting from their work.
Each 12-week undergraduate SEA program offers 14-18 semester hour credits through Boston University, SEA’s school of record. The SEA undergraduate summer sessions offer between 7 and 11 semester hour credits, depending on the program.
Program credit is issued either as direct credit from a student’s home institution (if affiliated with SEA) or as transfer credit from Boston University. Exactly how SEA credit transfers is ultimately up to each student’s home institution. Therefore, it is important that students work with their academic advisor to determine how the credit will best work for them. That being said, SEA enrolls students from a wide variety of colleges and universities each year, and almost all students are able to successfully transfer the full credit.
Join Over 10,000 Students Enjoying SEA Voyages
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