New Bedford Whaling Museum: New Student Exchange Program

The SouthCoast and Iceland will be doing a bit of a switch!

Six local high school students and three lucky teachers will be spending a week in Iceland next summer, while some native Icelanders will switch places and visit New Bedford, thanks to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

It was announced Monday that the exchange program was made possible through an $87,200 national grant from Museum Connect, a joint initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the American Alliance of Museums.

The grant-funded “Connecting Coastal Communities,” is a youth program focusing on ocean health, whale conservation and protection, cultural exchange and more.

Sarah Rose, the museum’s curator of education, revealed that the program is a part of a growing relationship with the Husavik Whale Museum, and the Husavik community, in Iceland.

Rose said the students eligible for the July 2016 trip will be selected from the museum’s existing apprenticeship program, which has 18 students this year.

The program will expose students to a new country and culture that they may have otherwise never seen before, much like Anthony Medeiros, who says he’s never been out of the country.

Medeiros, who will be a senior at Global Learning Charter Public School in the North End, is in the running to go to the foreign country.

“I’m really interested,” Medeiros said of Iceland, and the exchange program. “I plan to work really hard to try to participate in this.”

Collaborations with Husavik started with a trade mission last year.

The U.S. ambassador to Iceland, Robert C. Barber, even visited the museum in March and met with city leaders to share ideas about whaling-related tourism and economic development.

Additional reporting by Victoria Meneses