After spending many years working and living in the South Pacific and interacting with students in Fiji and the Cook Islands, it seemed necessary to write about the experiences of these students as they navigated the difficult landscape of the program requirements at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji Islands.

The University of the South Pacific is supported by twelve island states: Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Niue, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Nauru, and Tokelau. The main campus is in Fiji with other campuses located in the other eleven countries. These islands are small in land mass but large in square kilometers as they contain a large area of ocean.