Georgian College

At the time, the college's marine program was a completely sponsored program. "It wasn't easy," says Amanda, who lived on the $300 monthly stipend that was provided. "Being on a ship is hands-on dirty work with long hours." At the beginning of the program, there were 32 students and after a one-week orientation at the Owen Sound Campus, they spent the next six months on the Great Lakes. After six months, only 20 students returned to the program and just 12 graduated. Amanda was one of them, and she has been breaking down barriers ever since. After graduation, Amanda pursued a number of opportunities both domestically and abroad. Her experience as a student on the Great Lakes combined with professional experience following graduation, recently led her to captain the Algoma Buffalo – a bulk carrier that is nearly 200 metres long with a cargo capacity of 24,300 tonnes. She's not sure where her love of seafaring came from, noting that her father was a dentist and her mother a nurse. Her first nautical experience came when she learned to sail at a summer camp in Parry Sound. In 1976, Slade attended a tall ship rendezvous in Toronto. There, she learned about Toronto Brigantine. She signed up for a one-week training session where she and other students sailed on the Great Lakes. "I had a real aptitude for it," she recalls. She was invited to join the student crew as a cook, sailing on the vessel all summer long. It wasn't until 1999 that she began pursuing her master mariner's certification, and while the academic portion of the process was available to her through Georgian College, Amanda realized she would need to work internationally to gain the experience she needed to qualify. "So few Canadians are ever able to achieve the master mariner license," says Amanda. "Almost all Canadian-flagged ships operate in sheltered waters – on lakes, rivers and near shore. A master mariners certificate requires experience on the open ocean." Amanda worked tirelessly from 1984 to 2005 on acquiring the necessary skills and certificates to qualify. The final oral exam was in front of fellow captains and master mariners who asked questions and posed scenarios, a traditional element of the certification process practiced for hundreds of years. After passing the master mariners exam in 2005, the seas opened up. She could now captain any ship worldwide, and she did. She sailed through the Panama and Suez Canals, West Africa, Australia, and even had to wear a flak jacket while sailing off the coast of Somalia, a notorious pirate haven. "It was a really great experience, a really great job," says Amanda. She also spent time working as a senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Since 2016, Amanda has been helping to train the next generation of mariners through teaching roles at marine schools across Canada, including Georgian. She is also pursuing a degree in anthropology through Athabasca University. When asked where her interest in anthropology stems from, she smiles and notes that "Ships are little microcosms of humanity" and she wants to learn more about how humanity spread across the ocean so many years ago. 17 GEORGIANVIEW 2018 COLLEGE CHANGEMAKERS

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