For fifteen years I have been going to Ocean Classroom sendoffs. We’ve had them in Boothbay, in Gloucester, in Portland, In Boston. There’s the milling around on the docks, the t-shirted students, the nervous parents. 

Proximate learning does not occur without risk, but it is in those moments where students are living their education alongside the issues they are studying where world views are transformed. Tomorrow at noon, more than a third of Proctor's student body will submit applications to study abroad on one of our five term-long off-campus programs next year. Many will apply to study off-campus for the first time, while others will look to cap their Proctor experience with a second or third trimester abroad. So why is it that more than 80% of our students choose to study off-campus?

Ocean Classroom 2019 is complete, but the memories and friendships will carry on. While the crew of 21 Proctor students has now been home for just over a week, and will be welcomed by a fresh foot of snow on campus when they return Tuesday evening for the Winter Term, they will have these blog posts, Ship's Logs, and thousands of photos to bring them back to the Caribbean waters of Puerto Rico, St. John, and St. Croix. A big thank you to Ocean Classroom educators Matthew Ecklund, Claire Callahan, and Holly Buresh for capturing photos, student writing and video along the way. 

After more than ten days on the open ocean, Proctor's Ocean Classroom program aboard Schooner Roseway spotted land! While this post contains Ship's Logs that are now more than a week old, we are playing catch-up from the group's transit and will include one final blog post next Tuesday with the remainder of ship's logs from the journey as the group finishes out their term at sea with a final stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday, November 22. 

Today’s blog post from Ocean Classroom serves as an account of the first half of a nearly two week transit from Charleston, South Carolina to St. Croix. Proctor’s crew of 21 students has arrived in St. Croix and we will soon post the remainder of their Ship’s Logs and more photos/video, but for now, enjoy this window into life at sea. 

Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program has departed Charleston, South Carolina and is currently in transit to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The nearly two-week voyage across the open sea is by far the longest of the term, and while the ship is in daily contact with the school via satellite phone, we will not be receiving Ship’s Logs updates until their arrival in St. Croix. To view their progress across the Atlantic, click HERE. In the meantime, check out a few additional entries from Savannah and Charleston below! 

Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program met up with director Brooks Bicknell ‘77 in Savannah, Georgia this weekend. Entering the final third of their eight-week voyage to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, all reports from the crew are that they are happy, healthy, and loving life at sea. Read more from their Ship’s Log entries below.

Proctor's Ocean Classroom crew has surpassed the 30 day mark on their eight week voyage down the eastern seaboard to the US Virgin Islands. The changing of watches has become routine, the roll of the deck as the schooner Roseway cuts through the Atlantic second nature. Read this past week's Ship's Logs below.