Our Semester at Sea Fall 2010: Our Semester at Sea Extended Family

Suzanne and I have been very fortunate to have eight (8) children in an expanded family at Semester at Sea. The Expanded Family Program matches students and adults who choose to be involved. We agreed to have six kids which grew to eight in November. We met them for dinners, birthdays, Thanksgiving, study breaks and around the ship. It was their idea that we ask the Tutu’s to our birthday celebration in October since they were the kids “grandparents!” Suzanne gave them souvenirs from every port which they greatly appreciated. They are all good students, had fantastic personalities and come from happy homes. That was evident.

Jules, Archbishop Tutu, Paul, Mike, Salle (our hostess), Greg
Laura, Kate, Leah Tutu, Suzanne and Leigh

Laura Biltz will be a Senior at the U. of Michigan majoring in Anthropology. She resides in Midland, MI with her parents who work for Dow Chemical Company . Suzanne ran into Laura in a Beijing hotel when she and one of the faculty members were returning to the hotel. She asked Laura if she finished her paper before leaving for Biejing, a paper over which she had expressed some anxiety. Poor Laura had to say, “No.” Unbeknown to Suzanne, the faculty member with her was Laura’s teacher!

Julianne (Jules) Duffin will be a Senior at El Comino College majoring in Business Administration. She resides in Hermosa Beach, CA. Her parents were divorced and her mother is happily remarried and has a close relationship with all the children. Her mother teaches technology courses to 7th and 8th graders who followed Jules adventurers through the Vicarious Journey SAS program.

Michael Penn will be a Senior at the U. of Arizona majoring in Business Administration. He lives in Highland Beach, FL. His parents were divorced. Mike is especially close to his mother. Mike is very involved in the City of Refuge organization on the ship that is trying to free Ghana child slaves. He was in my comedy class and is very funny.

Mary (Kate) Lawrence is a Senior and about to graduate from Furman University majoring in Psychology. She resides in Lancaster, PA. Her father is a radiologist and her mother was a nurse. Her close-knit family enjoy watching sports events together. She was on several field trips with us including climbing Lion’s Head in Cape Town with Suzanne.

Leigh Yetter will be a Senior at the University of San Diego. Her major is still undecided. She hails from San Luis Obispo, CA, so we’ll probably see her when we visit our daughter, Debbie, who lives there too. Her family is also very close and she has a serious boyfriend who plays basketball for USD. Her mother knows our daughter Debbie.

Gregory (Greg) Molofsky graduated on the ship and from Towson State University with a major in Business Administration and Finance. Fortunately, he has a job waiting for him with a local CPA firm which he plans to pursue. He resides in Owings Mills, MD. He was in the graduation ceremony on the ship.

Drew Garrison will be a Senior at San Diego State University majoring in International Studies. He lives in San Diego and also enjoys a close-knit family. His father works for Qualcomm and mother is a homemaker. Greg and Suzanne met at the Art of Living in India. He and Cookie were orphaned when their ship mom disemabarked earlly as planned. So our ship family voted to adopt them. Drew also was on Suzanne's Beijing trip and was constantly teasing her and everyone else too.

Alexandra (Cookie) Echsner is a Senior at St. Louis University at their Madrid, Spain campus majoring in International Studies. Her family is very close and her sister is married to Shane Dean whose parents (Sandy and Mike Dean) live at 1207 McKinley St. in Alton, IL. She has actually walked right by our home!