Semester at Sea, a program sponsored by the University of Virginia, allows students an opportunity to study global issues in the context of the different countries they visit.
Ryder's ship, the MV Explorer, visited ports in countries that included Malaysia, South Africa, China and Vietnam. Students are required to take a minimum of 12 units, and classes meet daily with one-week breaks.
During those breaks, students are encouraged to explore the ports they visit, whether on prearranged tours they booked prior to leaving, or on spur-of-the moment journeys that Ryder said gave her an up-close and personal view of the areas she wanted to experience.
"I wanted to be a traveler, not a tourist," Ryder said, and while every country made an impression on her and told its own story, her favorite was India.
After landing in the port city of Chennai, Ryder had one goal in mind: to see the Taj Mahal.
With four friends in tow, Ryder flew to Delhi, rented a jeep and made the five-hour drive to Agra, where the group toured the Taj Mahal with a private guide.
The Semester at Sea program also features "interport lecturers" who come on board in one port to lecture students about the next port they'll be visiting.
Tutu was already on board, and he taught the classes on South Africa, spoke to Ryder's global societies class, and conducted a prayer service after the killings at Virginia Tech.
Ryder described the global peace activist as "very down to earth, with a contagious laugh," and said he always entered a room dancing.
As a student who almost never got up early enough to have breakfast, Ryder was surprised — first to be awake that early, and again when she saw Tutu and his wife having breakfast in the dining room the last day the ship was in Japan.
