Academy Blog
Recent Highlights at the Mercy Ships Academy
The school years are busy onboard a Mercy Ship, and our blog is an excellent way to stay up to date with all the recent highlights at the Academy.
Follow along here to read exciting Academy stories and news as they unfold. Feel free to share with family, friends, and supporters back home!
Gran Canaria Football
Sometimes when we come into Gran Canaria for the ship’s refit, the Academy is still in session. Gran Canaria. This is a volcanic island, part of the Grand Canary Islands. It is about 100 km west of Morocco, though it belongs to Spain. The Spanish came in the late...
Academy Senior Projects
On alternating years, the Academy has been holding a senior project for eleventh and twelfth grade students which richly challenged them. In lieu of their normal English curriculum, they took a quarter to develop a personal project about something they wanted to...
Twin Ships in Madagascar
In January, 2016, the M/V Logos Hope came into port in Madagascar and moored at the pier next to where the Africa Mercy was stationed amidst much cheering and delight. The two ships looked like twins, as both were commissioned from retired ferries. Here you see the...
Our New Academy Preschool Teacher
Hello! My name is Trina Ramirez and I will be the Preschool teacher on the Africa Mercy in January! Let me tell you about myself and how I got here to work in the Academy. I grew up in Guatemala as a missionary kid and moved to the states when I was 15. So that...
No Matter How Small
As a teacher, I like having a plan. I like feeling confident and prepared. But on Friday afternoons, when we walk out of our classroom and into the noise, heat, and chaos of deck seven, all of that is thrown out the window. I am no longer certain of the rules, the...
School Retreat in Africa
Going to school on a ship comes with many great experiences — you get to meet people from all around the world, and do things that not many other people get to do — like helping make drinks in a cafe for doctors and nurses on break, or counting pills for patients....
Two Ships and Two Schools
Today we experienced an exciting first for the Mercy Ships Academy! English Teachers from both ships collaboratively planning for the Junior High and High School English Courses onboard both the Africa Mercy and Global Mercy. For teachers to plan collaboratively is...
uShaka Beach Field Trip
One time when we were in Durban, we arranged a field trip to uShaka Beach for the 6-12th graders. It is a very long beach waterfront. A couple of teachers went down first and inquired about renting bicycles, then went along the beach walkway to find ideas for a...
Teaching Kindness Through Physical Education
During one of our annual shipyards in Durban, South Africa, many of our crew were at housed at an empty college campus at Applesbosch, in the hills of Kwa Zulu Natal. The Academy had a Scottish Physical Education (PE) teacher who saw the space and gym at the campus...