Hello! My name is Addie Heifetz and I’m a rising sophomore majoring in Public Health and Environmental Biology. This summer I will be interning as an educator and deckhand aboard the Schooner Adventuress based in Port Townsend, Washington and operated by the nonprofit Sound Experience. Adventuress is a 105-year old, 133 foot wooden ship, and she served as one of my many homes during the pre-college gap year I took before starting at Tulane. I could not be more excited to return the ship to be a crewmember once again and continue to grow as I live and work on board!
Sound Experience is dedicated to promoting Puget Sound environmental stewardship and personal empowerment in an inclusive community by offering day sails and overnight journeys to local youths and families. At the beginning of the summer I will be working mainly with school groups coming aboard to learn lessons about the Salish Sea while staying and sailing in it. Later on, there will be a mixture of youth and adult sails. My role as a deckhand involves helping to prep and raise sails each day as well as help with general ship operations- helping prepare meals in the galley, cleaning above and below decks, checking bilge levels periodically, etc. Being an educator extends to all aspects of ship life. In addition to leading lessons on subjects like plankton and ocean acidification, I will be helping program participants learn all aspects of living on a tall ship, from safely handling lines (the ropes that connect to sails) and reading nautical charts to operating the heads (on-ship toilets). As groups rotate through, I will be living on board with the rest of the crew.
I will be keeping the following learning objectives in mind throughout the internship:
-I will learn more about practical ship operations (navigation, applying sail theory, engineering, docking procedures, etc) and become more skilled and comfortable in assisting in them
-I will increase my confidence in my ability to educate others on the marine environment and sailing
-I will develop my leadership potential while facilitating lessons and working with other crew members
-I will explore my interest in nature and the outdoors and how I can use this passion to inspire others to make choices that positively impact the planet
-I will learn more about the issues affecting Puget Sound and other marine environments and, by understanding these problems more deeply, look toward some potential ways to promote solutions
Women’s leadership, central to NCI’s mission, is one of the pillars of this internship. Throughout history, women have been frequently excluded from and underrepresented in the maritime industry. Adventuress regularly provides an inclusive environment for people of all gender identities to actively participate in ship life. There are few things that are more empowering than operating a 98-ton, 110-foot tall vessel. I look forward to developing my leadership while enjoying the mentorship of fellow women crewmembers who are thriving in the maritime industry. The female participants in Sound Experience programs, especially the overnight ones, are also given an awesome opportunity to build confidence and explore leadership potential while they learn and participate in ship life.
I am first preparing for this internship by getting some rest because I’m at the tail end of battling mono and need to be ready for the physical demand of working on a ship! I am using this time to catch up on relevant knots and some sail theory as well as trying to design a leadership lesson that I can do with middle school girls during July’s Girls At The Helm program. I cannot wait for this upcoming opportunity to explore my passions for the environment and for experiential education. I’m so, so excited to build upon my tall ship knowledge and work to become a better crew member and educator!