The Buzz

Gathered in the Wilkins Meeting House as the culmination of their term-long off-campus program, Ocean Classroom students returned to campus this week to share nine weeks of intensive academic work and lived experience at sea.

During their passage through the Sargasso Sea toward St. John, Ocean Classroom students entered the Junior Watch Officer phase of their voyage, directing the operation of the SSV Corwith Cramer and even giving orders to professional crew on sail adjustments and helm positions. Between six-hour watches, students processed research samples and found moments of connection in the daily rhythms of life aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer.

During their passage far offshore in the North Atlantic, across the Gulf Stream and into the Sargasso Sea, Ocean Classroom students' days aboard the Sea Education Association's Corwith Cramer were shaped by the rhythms that emerge after weeks at sea – watch rotations that include time at the helm, lookout vigils beneath the stars, and hours in the lab processing samples.

Ocean Classroom Students are settling into life at sea - adjusting to watch rotations, anchor checks, and the constant motion of the ship, even celebrating a birthday with a "slightly angled" chocolate cake - while conducting science deployments and learning to sail.

As students prepare to set sail next week for ocean-going research, academic study, and experiential learning, their faculty offered this update. Ocean Classroom 2025 is off to a great start!

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.

Off-campus programs at Proctor represent our belief that transformative learning occurs when students exist in that delicate space between comfort and challenge, with one foot firmly planted outside their comfort zone.

After nine weeks aboard SEA's SSV Corwith Cramer, twenty-one Proctor students returned to campus transformed from novice sailors into capable young mariners and scientists. Welcome home, Ocean Classroom 2024! We hope you enjoy this last collection of ship's logs.

During their second week at sea, Ocean Classroom participants sailed the SSV Corwith Cramer from Long Island Sound to Baltimore, facing their biggest challenge yet: 36 hours of strong winds and ten-foot swells south of Long Island.