IMPACT Scholarship- Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea has a scholarship named the IMPACT Program Scholarship. Semester at Sea has partnered with a local NGO in Morocco and one in Ghana. The organizations that Semester at Sea has partnered up with are the Global Diversity Foundation in Morocco and Global Mamas in Ghana. Semester at Sea awards these organizations a grant and through this scholarship program a select number of students gets to visit these organizations through fully paid field programs. Additionally, 3 of the selected students will receive a scholarship towards their tuition. When I first applied for the scholarship I thought the program would be like a volunteer project. When I finally was able to see and spend some time with the organizations it was not what I had initially imagined.

The IMPACT Cohort (the group of students selected) got to spend 4 days with the Global Diversity Foundation. During the first day, we visited the Secret Garden Museum and the Water Museum to learn about the importance of water in the country of Morocco. On the second day, we visited the Dar Taliba School where the organization has an ethnobotanical school garden. We were able to meet with the girls that attend the boarding school and learning about agricultural practices. Day 3 consisted of a visit to the High Atlas Mountains to see one of the organization's plants nursery. There we learned more about agricultural practices and native plants. On the last day, we travelled to the market in Marrakech to learn about medicinal plants. Overall we learned a vast amount of things during our stay with Global Diversity Foundation.

In Ghana, the IMPACT Cohort spent 3 days with Global Mamas. The first day we participated in a batik workshop and a drumming and dancing workshop. The next two days were focused on helping the organization with different projects. The cohort was split up into 4 different groups; Batik Design, Photography, Meet the Mamas and Social Media. I was in the batik design group and we had the task of creating possible batik designs for their fall 2020 collection. In the photography group, they worked on capturing stunning photos modelling some of the Global Mama products for their catalogue. In the meet the mamas group the students worked on creating a short profile of 5 of the batik workers. Lastly, the social media group worked on strategies to improve their social media platform. We all did some amazing work and learn about the organization.

Both trips were amazing experiences and I would recommend that you apply for this scholarship if you plan to study abroad with Semester at Sea. It truly was a unique experience I would not have been able to enjoy had it not been for this scholarship.