Colby College Student Hannah Newhall Studies Abroad through SEA Semester Program

2016 Dec 2

Hannah Newhall, a member of the Class of 2018 at Colby College, recently embarked aboard the 134-foot brigantine SSV Corwith Cramer, with other upper-level science students, to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Their goal is to investigate one of the foremost scientific challenges of their generation: global climate change.

Through SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate, a study-abroad program offered by Sea Education Association (SEA), these students will examine firsthand the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle and climate dynamics and apply their knowledge to pressing public policy questions.

The students began the program in September at Woods Hole for six weeks of intensive scientific and policy coursework. In November, they met the SSV Corwith Cramer in the Canary Islands before embardking on a six-week transatlantic voyage to St. Croix in the Caribbean. Along the way, the students will become working members of the ship's crew and use advanced oceanographic instruments to research diverse marine ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean. They will implement their experimental design, analyze their collected data, and present their scientific findings in peer-reviewed poster sessions at the end of the program.

Newhall, a biology major with a concentration on ecology and evolution, is the daughter of Sally and Thomas Newhall and attended Cape Elizabeth High School.