World Ocean School offers scholarships to four students from St. Croix and hires two fulltime staff to work on the island year-round.
On July 1, four students from St. Croix set sail aboard the schooner Roseway for World Ocean School’s week-long residential Summer Ambassador Program in Boston. The students made the journey up to Boston as a group alongside World Ocean School’s newest employee, Sathi Bethelmy, the St. Croix Summer Program coordinator. Through this nine-day immersive adventure at sea, students followed a southbound itinerary aboard Roseway where they used the marine simulators and toured the campus at New England Maritime Institute, saw whales on their voyage, and enjoyed fireworks aboard Roseway from Newport Harbor.
The 2022 Junior Summer Ambassador Program gave students a taste of life on board, where they learned a wide variety of tangible seamanship skills while stepping outside their comfort zones within the safe and supportive community of their shipmates.
As Bethelmy supported St. Croix students’ journey up to Boston, she reflected, “As an alumna of World Ocean School, it’s very interesting to see the Summer Ambassador Program from different aspects, and what goes on behind the scenes to get the program all ready for the students. From the student aspect, it’s all about who you will meet when you get aboard the Roseway, what you will be doing and what activities the crew has planned for you. From the program coordinator’s perspective, you have to make sure that all the students are accounted for and they receive the information that is needed for the program, to answer all the burning and curious questions the parents might have.”
Shannel Keith, a parent of one of the students who came aboard Roseway for this journey, reflected, “World Ocean School gave a totally different perspective on what children can do.” She said, “I was impressed by the way the program was organized, impressed by the organization, and impressed by the crew and how comfortable they made the students.”
Keith expressed that while she initially felt hesitant to send her child up to Boston for this experience, she ultimately was glad that he convinced her to let him go. Hear additional student testimonials and learn more about World Ocean School’s Junior Summer Ambassador Program through its Ship’s Log.
With the generous support of the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development, World Ocean School further solidified its commitment to meeting its mission on St. Croix with the recent hiring of two full time staff members to work year-round in the St. Croix office. Sathi Bethelmy, an alumna of World Ocean School’s program herself, is the St. Croix coordinator, focused on restarting year-round programming on the island and supporting its Summer Ambassador students in their travels to Boston and back.
Karisma Elien has also joined the team as World Ocean School’s regional director driving World Ocean School’s continued growth and expansion of its local partnerships on St. Croix.
For more information and to keep up to date with World Ocean School programming, visit www.worldoceanschool.org.
