Location: West End, Tortola
Hello everybody! We have been busy bees these past few days running around to get our boat, Dallas Blonde, ready for our students to come today. We are so excited for everyone to arrive!! Over the next three weeks, we are going to get to work with some amazing community partners, learn a whole bunch, make some awesome friends, and make great memories. So, without further adieu, let us introduce ourselves.
I am a calm detail-oriented, and friendly person. I love to be around people and get to know them. As I worked in hospitality for years, I had the opportunity to meet people worldwide and better understand their cultures and habits. I have spent my summers in Croatia, where I had my Croatian C category skipper license and skipper boats during the summers with my friends and family. Since I remember, I have always loved the sea hence my passion for sailing and diving. This is why I continued the path of becoming a diver and Yachtmaster. I intend to gain my instructor level in both. I plan to keep improving myself in sailing and diving in the future.
Annie: Medic, Mate, and Program Manager
Annie grew up in the Chicago suburbs. As a SeaMester student aboard Argo’s summer voyage from Fiji to Palau, she discovered her passion for the ocean. While aboard Argo, Annie loved learning to sail and scuba dive, becoming a PADI Rescue Diver. She is also interested in wilderness medicine and became a Wilderness First Responder this year. During the school year, Annie is a student at the University of Dayton, studying International Studies, Sustainability, and French. She likes to run, read, backpack, rock climb, and generally spend as much time outdoors as possible in her free time. She loves to help young people connect with the outdoors and is super excited to be at ActionQuest this summer!
Benazir: Medic and Mate
Benazir grew up near Lake Michigan and has since upgraded to the ocean. She became interested in sailing when she studied abroad on the Seamester vessel Argo’s spring 2020 passage from South Africa to Antigua. Since then, she has worked on sailing boats in New York and the Caribbean and has earned her Master of Yachts Offshore license. Benazir has also completed her Medical First Aid and Medical Person in Charge trainings, making her a medic. She is a recent graduate of Harvard University, where she concentrated in Linguistics, Psychology, and Biology. Since graduation, Benazir has spent her time sailing, traveling, and teaching English as a Second Language.
Riley spent most of his early life and teenage years racing dinghies, keelboats, performance catamarans, and other racing-oriented sailboats. Riley had his boating license by age 12, First Aid/CPR certification by 15, and became a Level 1 and 2 U.S. Sailing Certified coach at age 17. Riley also gained a Pre-Engineering Certification through his high school and spent time building docks and seawalls in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. He has participated in multiple World Championship regattas on the east coast of the U.S. and began some Olympic training in the Nacra 17 class in 2021. Riley spent four years as a race team sailing coach for a community-based sailing program in Sarasota, Florida, where he met Travis, Mike, and the majority of the GXG office team. Riley joined ActionQuest in 2021 as a mate. Since then, he has joined the office during the year as an enrollment advisor and has spent time in Thailand working on the Argo refit project for SeaMester. Riley spends almost all his time on the water, whether it be sailing, surfing, fishing, or any other sport on or in the water. When it comes to teaching, Riley is dedicated to teaching the sport that he has learned to love in an easy and fun environment, even though his background is mainly focused on high-performance racing. Riley also has some experience in organic produce farming and mollusk/crustacean farming throughout the Southeast United States.
We can’t wait to get started and share our adventure with all of you 🙂