Have you ever thought, “I wish I started sailing sooner”? … “What if I could combine my love of sea travel with my studies?” … “Why didn’t I start exploring the world earlier in life?” Well, for one group of students and teachers, this gets to happen each year.
Imagine being a teenager, boarding a nearly century-old tall ship with about 95 strangers, preparing to make this your home for the next 10 months. There would be many emotions: excitement, sadness, fear of missing out at home, looking forward to the adventure ahead. Around you, you see people from Norway, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Venezuela, Switzerland, and more. You take a breath and realize that these are the people who will be sailing with you across many seas and oceans this year. These people are the ones you will laugh and cry with and share all of your meals with. They will soon become like family.
This is not your typical cruise. In fact, this is not a cruise at all; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience added to a high-schooler’s education. Rather than full bedrooms and all-you-can-eat packages, these students become part of the crew of Sørlandet, a 99-year-old sailing ship. Each year, 60 to 72 students fly to Kristiansand, Norway, and they board this living museum of a vessel to embark on a journey that will mark their lives forever.
Lucky for me, I was able to join this program as well.
Education and Experience
I’d been teaching in a public high school in the United States for three years when I decided to switch things up. Wanting to combine my love of teaching and travel, I investigated opportunities to teach internationally. When I was growing up, my father learned how to sail and many of our summer vacations turned into sailing trips in the British Virgin Islands. So, in the fall of 2023, I told my colleagues about wanting to pursue a job internationally, and one of them knew another teacher on the ship. She said “Wait, I think I know of a job that would be perfect for you. Your family loves sailing, and this has both sailing and teaching!”
She connected me, I spoke with her friend on the phone, I emailed the head of school, and then the interviews began.
By August 2024, I found myself on an airplane to Norway, ready to set sail into a new adventure. When I met fellow teachers and some of our sailors, the ship had just come out of the shipyard for maintenance, and I knew this was about to be special by the joy on everyone’s faces as they spoke about the program and the ship. One said to me, “It will be difficult, but it will also be so rewarding. You are going to learn so much about yourself here, too.”
Later that night, a sailor told me “I love this program and seeing students grow up over the year. It is amazing how much they will change from when you meet them until they graduate.”
And then we met our students for the year.
In Session, On Board
All students and teachers fly to Norway to board the ship in August and prepare as best they can for what they will experience within the next 10 months. Each student gets placed in a “watch group” of 11 to 12 students, with a “watch mentor” (that’s me). After a short time on board, the group no longer feels like a collection of strangers. It feels like family. In a way, my group of 11 students last year felt like my own children, or at least like my nieces and nephews. All year long, I challenged them to grow and learn and take full advantage of their time in this unique environment. We had some of the best times together laughing, crying, sharing stories, baking in the galley (that sometimes got a little too messy), sharing meals in ports, and the occasional dance party after dinner. I will never be able to forget this group of teenagers.
You may have heard of Semester at Sea, which is a college program on a cruise ship. This is different. Our students get hands-on sail training while also….
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