Oliver Hazard Perry, Rogers HS offering new program

ANNA SPRING, right, a Rogers High School student, participated in the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island teen camp aboard the Tall Ship Mystic in 2014. A $36,400 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation is supporting a pilot program for the school that will culminate in an Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship voyage in August. / COURTESY AL WEEMS
ANNA SPRING, right, a Rogers High School student, participated in the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island teen camp aboard the Tall Ship Mystic in 2014. A $36,400 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation is supporting a pilot program for the school that will culminate in an Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship voyage in August. / COURTESY AL WEEMS

NEWPORT – Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island is partnering with the public schools and Rogers High School to offer an education program supported by a $36,400 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation.
The grant helps fulfill OHPRI’s goal of establishing opportunities for Newport County students to access at-sea experiential education programs onboard Rhode Island’s official sailing education vessel, the 200-foot tall ship Oliver Hazard Perry.
“OHPRI and the Newport Public School Department have been cultivating this collaboration since 2010,” said OHPRI Executive Director Jess Wurzbacher, “and with Oliver Hazard Perry now becoming operational, both parties are committed to implementing this plan.”
The program “fits perfectly” within the van Beuren Charitable Foundation’s specific commitment to supporting alternative learning pathways, Wurzbacher said.
The pilot program will connect 30 Rogers High School students and the school to Oliver Hazard Perry. A close working relationship with four teachers will be developed to transform classroom-based learning into experiential learning. Students will help operate the square-rigged ship, gaining first-hand experience of the maritime environment integral to Newport, its history, and its ecosystems.
A voyage is scheduled for Aug. 23 to 29.
For more information, contact Wurzbacher at 401-841-0080 or info@ohpri.org, or Jennifer Booth, assistant superintendent of schools, at 401-847-2100 or jenniferbooth@npsri.net.

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