By Preston Price
It was a
very
sunny day on the outside deck in the back of the ship, and a wonderful
place for an interview. My interviewee, Jeff Leary, was very
cooperative but not very enthusiastic about the interview and he tended
to respond with short simple statements. Due to these
circumstances, I resorted to going back to him a second time just to
elicit more personal information. Lucky for me, he was just as
willing the second time.
Jeff was born and raised in Rochester, New
York. He currently attends the University of Pittsburgh where is
majoring in Psychology and History. After he told me where he
attended school, I assumed that he had heard of Semester at Sea because
Pittsburgh had been the previous academic sponsor. Alsthough this
was true, he also knew a number of friends from school that had
attended SAS in the past. Jeff's prior travel experiences are
fairly limited, with abroad visits consisting of only visits to Canada
and Mexico. However, I did find out that he has traveled
extensively throughout the U.S. and he is extremely excited to visit
the various countries that are on the itenerary for the near
future. I personally believe that this is the perfect candidate
for this type of voyage. He has minimal travel experience and is
very enthusiastic and opportunistic about future travels. Jeff
made it clear that his upcoming SAS experiences do not necessarily
reflect his academic interests as much as his desire to travel.
I concluded the interview with questions relating to
his application process and reasons as to why he was interested in
SAS. He seemed pretty set on going to Semester at Sea when his
friends at school had first informed him about the program. He
stated that his parents were very supportive from the start,
financially as well as inspirational in terms of being
persuasive. Jeff told me, "Once I had the grades it was just a
matter of applying and getting accepted." Jeff was never unsure
about SAS, explaining that he had no fears for the dangers of
traveling. I feel that he was truly looking forward to a new,
unique, and possibly life changing experience.