Some of the best friends Amber Tullos has made during her semester abroad aren’t people in exotic countries or even her fellow students. Instead, they are 20 third-graders.

Tullos, international and area studies junior, left in January for a 108-day cruise around the world as part of the Semester at Sea program. She and her 700 classmates have already docked in several countries, including Spain, South Africa and Vietnam, and are scheduled to visit more, she said.

In addition to the 12 to 15 credit hours students are required to complete during the semester, Tullos and about 134 other SAS students are volunteering for Vicarious Voyage, in which program participants correspond with U.S. primary and secondary school students, said Michelle Hurst, SAS assistant director of international field programs.

“Amber is going all out,” said Kris Charny, a third-grade teacher at O’Hara Elementary School in Pittsburg, Pa. Charny has participated in Vicarious Voyage for 14 years and said Tullos stands out because of her enthusiasm.

“She’s been wonderful to send us a lot of materials and keeping in touch with us,” Charny said.

Tullos and her assigned partner, another SAS student, have sent picture CDs, video clips, menus in foreign languages and candy wrappers from other countries to the Pennsylvania school.

One of the pair’s video clips was shot from inside an Indian taxi so the students could see what the country’s streets look like. Charny said this is the first time a SAS student has sent video clips to her class.

The students send letters to Tullos, but in a different way.

The students have written to Tullos twice this semester by sending the letters to a port city where Tullos can pick them up. Tullos said she decorates her room on the ship with the letters she has received so far.

“I hope that my little pen pals are learning that the people and places that I’m visiting are not all that different from them and from their own communities,” Tullos said in an e-mail. “I want them to take an interest in cultures other than their own. I will feel fulfilled if I can just show them that people are interconnected and that the world is not as big as it appears to be.”

SAS hosts semester-long programs that last more than 100 days but also has summer programs that run 60 to 70 days, Hurst said.

Hurst said voyages like Tullos’ are “floating universities.” Along with about 700 students, the ships house about 30 professors, an executive dean and an academic dean. The program offers about 80 courses to fit a variety of major requirements, Hurst said. She said the emphasis of SAS is to provide students with a true “global comparative education.”

As for Tullos, she said she has learned considerably more during her time with SAS than she could from any textbook.

“I feel like sometimes people let stereotypes determine their views about other cultures,” she said. “I found that the people that I met in the most impoverished countries were the happiest. I have learned that there is a lot more to life than monetary success and material accumulation.”

But Tullos said taking advantage of every day and keeping a positive attitude are the most important lessons she has learned from Semester at Sea.

“Although the future is important, it should not take precedent over enjoying your current journey,” she said. “I feel like this experience has given me insight into the type of person that I want to be.”