After a second quarantine period, Proctor's Winter Ocean Classroom crew is aboard Roseway and sailing the Caribbean waters, all while learning navigation, maritime literature, and marine biology. Learn more!

Proctor Academy’s Winter Ocean Classroom program continues to navigate uncharted waters from their home base in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. While the waters are metaphorical for the time being (due to an extended quarantine period), the lessons remain powerful: patience, perseverance, and making the most of a difficult time.  Read more from the past week on Winter Ocean Classroom. 

For the past 27 years, Proctor students have spent the Fall Term studying aboard an historic tall ship, sailing the eastern seaboard of the United States. This coveted off-campus experience has always been limited to the Fall Term, however, COVID-19 forced us to creatively look at our off-campus offerings this winter. With Proctor en Segovia unable to run due to travel restrictions, Ocean Classroom program director Brooks Bicknell '77 went to work reimagining a winter trimester program partnered with the World Ocean School based in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Today, eight students are aboard the schooner Roseway after rigorous COVID-19 testing and quarantine, ready to launch the experience of a lifetime. Read more from this group's first week together! 

If 2020 has taught us anything it is 1) to remain flexible and 2) the importance of relationships. Ocean Classroom 2020 instilled these two critical lessons in the twenty-one Proctor students who called the schooner Roseway home for the past ten weeks. Congratulations to the crew of Ocean Classroom on completing an unforgettable journey. 

Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program has made its way to Cumberland Island, Georgia as they prepare for the long open sea voyage to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in the coming week. Unsettled weather in the Atlantic has delayed Roseway’s departure for this 13 day open water voyage, but the students and program are committed to making this experience happen. Read more from the past week on Ocean Classroom in the student journal entries below and enjoy a few video clips from the past week. 

Not all schools could run a program like Ocean Classroom in the midst of a global pandemic, but when Ocean Classroom director Brooks Bicknell ‘77 proposed a plan to run the program this fall, members of the Proctor’s COVID-19 Task Force rallied to find a way to safely quarantine both students and crew prior to launching the nine week, term-long voyage. The schooner Roseway and its intrepid student crew are now seven weeks into their journey down the eastern seaboard, and having the most abnormally, normal Fall Term of anyone at Proctor. Read more from the past week’s Ship’s Log below!

Proctor Academy’s Ocean Classroom program has entered week four at sea, voyaging through the Long Island Sound and past New York City bound for the Chesapeake Bay. After five days docked in Mystic, Connecticut, the student crew of 21 was eager to get back on the water for the next leg of their journey. Read more from the past week’s Ship’s Logs below! 

Ocean Classroom 2020 is making its way along the Connecticut coast toward New York City as we publish this recap of the past week aboard schooner Roseway. For the 21 intrepid sailors who once merely called themselves students, this voyage is teaching them how to live, learn, and work alongside each other unlike any other experience could.