Programs Blog

March 31, 2025 

Time: 1602 

Location: SEA Campus – Woods Hole, MA  

Weather: Surprisingly warm (high 50s) & overcast 

Hello hello! My name is Georgia, and I’m a junior at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN, where I major in Environmental Studies and minor in both Biology and Statistics. As you could probably tell, I have been tasked with closing out the blog for our first shore component here in Woods Hole! I can’t believe we’re here already! 

I still can’t believe that we’re leaving quaint, silly Woods Hole tomorrow. For so long, our time here felt seemingly endless– in a good way, obviously –but this past week has definitely put things into perspective. 

Friday was truly the big day, with everybody presenting their final projects for both Environmental Communication and Ocean Science and Public Policy. In true S-321 fashion, these presentations were nothing short of entertaining. From a rap about climate change to a fisheries game involving candy, it was truly a memorable way to close out some big projects. Naturally, to celebrate, we… GAVE MORE PRESENTATIONS! Let me clarify, we gave very unserious presentations. Brigitte taught us what bird everyone was; Robin rated some flying cows; I shared my ultimate Hunger Games line-up; and many more lectures. Safe to say that we were very well educated in a slew of topics by the end of the night. 

The rest of our last weekend was relatively relaxed, except for the impending doom of packing and cleaning that was creeping up on us. To ignore this, we spent both Saturday and Sunday night eating our weight in soup. Shout out to Chef Patricia for making some incredible chicken noodle and cheesy potato soups! If there’s one thing about our class, it’s that we LOVE soup. Jaimie even joked that the “S” in S-321 stands for “soup,” leading Jen [Borderud, director of student life] to suggest that we change our class name to S-365. What can we say? We just really love soup! 

Okay, that’s enough talk about soup. It’s starting to not feel like a real word. Anyways, today began with a game-plan meeting with Jen, prepping us for the day to come. Shortly after, the packing party began! I put some music from the shared A-house playlist, Gabi put out a 2-pound bag of Mike & Ike’s, and everyone began wrangling their things into duffel bags. For some people, this was breeze. For Aimee, Jaimie, and I… Well, let’s just say lots of bag punching and morale hugs were needed. Fortunately, everything made it into our duffels, and they were all remarkably under 50 pounds! We’re choosing to ignore the fact that we will have to repack these bags in 6 weeks, but that’s a problem for another day. To my Mum, I told you it would all fit (lovingly)! 

After we felt confident enough to step away from our bags, the deep clean of the house began. In full honesty, I think we did a great job keeping House Antares pretty clean throughout this entire month. Aside from the trail of sand embedded in the door mat and the remnants of spilled lemonade in the fridge, not much work had to be put in to leave the place better than we found it. Of course, cleaning the house is no feat that anyone would be able to by themselves, so I would like to shout out everyone in A House for pitching in on our last day. 

Honestly, that has been an overall trend that I have noticed across the S-321 community. Everyone here is a team player. On many occasions, I have seen everyone go out of their way to help and make things easier for the larger group. Often, this has resulted in some pretty great laughs and memories– case in point, hanging up the gumby suits last week. Overall, this class is just a really great group of humans, and I can’t wait to spend 6 weeks on a boat with them. 

Our time in Woods Hole has truly been an amazing start to this program, and I can’t believe that we’re already leaving tomorrow. It’s really a bittersweet moment. On one hand, I can’t wait for the journey that awaits us in the South Pacific and in Mo’orea. On the other hand, there is so much of this little town that we haven’t explored. I know for myself, I will be coming back in one way or another! Our time here will always be treasured, because it was here that we evolved from 17 complete strangers to the family that is S-321. 

With that, I’m signing off for Shore I! Can’t wait to see where the wind takes us (literally) aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans. See you all at sea! 

More shout-outs!

To my family: Thank you so much for supporting me through everything and being there for me through all my shenanigans. I miss you all so much and can’t wait to see you in Mo’orea! Love you loads! 

To my Mac friends: I hope you all are having the most fantastic time studying abroad! I miss you so much and I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures this summer. <3 

To everyone at SEA: Thank you so much for such an amazing experience so far, I can’t wait to embark on this fantastic opportunity with you all. I couldn’t ask for a better crew!