Ocean Classroom: Celebrating the Launch of the Program's 32nd Year

On Wednesday, September 10, 40 Proctor parents and senior administrators joined 22 students at Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to launch the 32nd year of Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program. Likening Ocean Classroom to Wilderness Orientation that all students new to Proctor experience, Head of School Amy Smucker thanked Ocean student Tucker Infurna ‘27 for helping her understand the vitality of experiential learning for Proctor students. Amy cited two blisters on her toes as lingering reminders of having “leaned into something hard” after completing her first Wilderness Orientation in the White Mountains. She encouraged Ocean students to do the same.

In a formal presentation geared toward Proctor’s students and their families, SEA faculty shared details of the curriculum, introduced student-life initiatives, and even had parents orienting themselves in the wet lab, peering through microscopes at various plankton collected while aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer. The ship will be the students’ home and classroom once they embark on their voyage from Woods Hole to St. Croix, crossing the Gulf Stream and Sargasso Sea to have a compelling offshore experience. 

SEA Chief Scientist Dr. Jeff Schell introduced the interdisciplinary nature of their study of Marine Science. He noted their upcoming study of geology, chemistry, and physics as disciplines through which to gain “a foundation in marine science.” With SEA’s 50-year history of collecting data, Proctor students will be able to put their individual research into the data set, helping “create new knowledge based on research,” in Jeff’s words. As Program Director for Ocean Classroom at SEA, he emphasized community, indicating that shipmates will “work hard, learn, and help each other.” Students’ communal duties during the shore component will involve preparing meals within their cottage residences, cleaning, and performing other chores to keep one another fed, healthy, and safe.  

Humanities instructor Dr. Craig Marin, an Atlantic historian, promised to “provide context” while on land to prepare students for the cruise track. With the ship’s Caribbean destination, Marin intends to emphasize the historic slave economy and explore how the notion of “plantation labor” has shaped political understandings of conditions leading up to the U.S. Civil War. Marin promised “lots of reading” of primary sources and literature, discussions, and hands-on activities to enliven and apply students’ study of human interactions with the sea.

Based on parent responses to the presentations, Captain Pamela Coughlin’s remarks proved most moving and reassuring as they contemplated their children’s venturing onto the sea aboard a ship. Captain Pamela amplified Jeff’s earlier point about living and working in authentic community. Likening her role as Captain to that of the conductor of an orchestra, Captain Pamela promised harmony: “There is nothing only one person can do to make the ship go.” Emphasizing “leadership in many forms,” she promised that students would return more resilient beings from their time at sea. “There’s some fierceness in them – there’s this power in their soul in having taken their fears, faced them, and been friends to them.” She also cautioned parents to give their children time to process the often ineffable experience of a long-distance voyage.

Adrienne Wheeler, whose son Kai ‘27 is on the program, said this:

“After meeting and listening to Captain Pamela talk to us on Wednesday, I am confident that our children are in the best of hands. She captured our attention immediately when she began speaking to the parents about the experiences that lay ahead. She was deliberate in her speech and movements, her words steady and slow. She smiled as she spoke and moved around the room in a way that compelled us to follow her. She spoke with such a depth of wisdom, experience and confidence, that it brought me to tears multiple times.  I have no doubt she will lead the students and crew in the same thoughtful and steady manner.” ~ Adrienne Wheeler P'27

Taylor Porter, whose daughter Eliza ‘27 is on Ocean Classroom this term, added:

“I was incredibly moved by the speeches from the SEA faculty, and I honestly had chills and was tearing up during Captain Pam's words to the parents. Her plea not to ask the kids 'How was it?' when they come home, because it will have been so transformational that they'll probably struggle to articulate their feelings, has been on repeat in my mind since." ~ Taylor Porter P'27, '29

Four program assistants will live alongside students in the two cottages that mirror Proctor’s housing model, and three will join them aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer during the at-sea portion of the program. Taking a page from Proctor’s Mountain Classroom playbook, students will prepare, cook, and clean up their daily meals together, rotating these and other duties during the on-shore component of the program. Following approximately three weeks of classes, activities, field trips, and training to board the ship, the maritime portion of the program will commence in early October.

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