Rocky Student Meets Archbishop at Sea

Tools

By Laura Kennedy

Story Published: Feb 17, 2011 at 8:21 PM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 18, 2011 at 2:52 PM MDT

BILLINGS - A semester of college doesn't usually bring to mind three months on a cruise ship, but for students participating in the Semester at Sea program, it's a reality.

One hundred and nine days, 11 countries, and sharing a cruise ship with a South African human rights activist, Katie Johnston's semester of college at sea was anything but typical. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity that will absolutely change your perception of who you are and the world you live in and it changes your perception of even just Montana," she said.

Through the program Semester at Sea she took classes toward her degree at Rocky Mountain College while traveling the globe. "Each place, except for Singapore and Mauritius, we spent between 5 and 9 days. So we had time to adjust and then we were uprooted again and had to learn about a whole new culture," Johnston said.

Johnston belonged to the lucky group of students who shared their time at sea with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a famous humanitarian and apartheid opponent. "We were in South Africa, we said oh we've met the Archbishop, and people would then invite us into their homes because he's such a hero, and the same thing actually happened when we were in India, too," she said.

She said meeting the Archbishop was inspirational and opened doors during her journey. "We were able to experience more of different cultures because we were able to experience him," she said, "One of his quotes when he was speaking to the shipboard community about South Africa was 'Dream the most impossible dreams because those are often the dreams of God.'"

Johnston shared her story of meeting the Archbishop at Rocky Mountain College's "Third Thursday" event Thursday night at 7:00 in the Student Union basement.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KULR-8 News, Sports, Weather and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Your Weather Authority

Icon
Current Temp 60.0 °F
Partly Cloudy
Wind : South at
5.8 mph
Humidity : 53 %
Pressure : 30.01 in
More Weather

Party America Sky Cam

More Weather

On Demand

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.