Exploring The Edge with the Young Explorers Program

At OceanX, science, education, and collaboration work together hand-in-hand. Our latest Young Explorers program brings this vision to life, leveraging experiential learning to protect the ocean’s future.  

The Young Explorers program is OceanX’s leadership immersion experience for youth ages 18 to 24 to learn ocean science and storytelling through direct exploration aboard the OceanXplorer. Since its inception in 2021, the program has hosted multiple cohorts from around the world, each combining research, mentorship, and storytelling to ignite the next generation of ocean advocates. Every voyage brings students into the heart of ocean discovery, turning curiosity into capability, and capability into stewardship. 

The Singapore-to-Timor-Leste transit marked the opening chapter of OceanX’s time in Timor-Leste — and the first Young Explorers cohort to partner with Tanoto Foundation. Over seven days at sea, fourteen youth, including nine Tanoto Scholars, joined OceanX scientists and media teams aboard the OceanXplorer to explore the frontlines of ocean discovery. The Tanoto Foundation partnership, formalized in 2024, is central to expanding access to ocean education across Southeast Asia and reflects our organizations’ shared commitment: Investing in people, not just projects, to build local capacity and leadership for sustainable impact. 

This cohort’s experience captured the spirit of what OceanX does best — uniting science, technology, and storytelling to make the ocean both understood and valued. Cohor members learned the fundamentals of ocean exploration through hands-on sessions in acoustic mapping, ROV operations, and lab-based marine science, while discovering how to translate scientific data into compelling visual stories that inspire understanding and action. Guided by mentors from OceanX’s science, education, and media teams, they saw how exploration connects with impact, from the precision of seafloor mapping to the creativity of communicating it. 

For participant Frida Pankiewitz, the voyage was transformative. Pankiewitz writes on Linkedin, “Our whole experience has been focused on how to combine the worlds of science and storytelling into one - because protecting the ocean means to give it empathy and understanding in a world where we often view it as nothing more than a tool to be exploited. And what better way is there to bring the ocean into people's hearts than to tell its story?” 

Frida’s reflection captures what this journey was designed to do: Enable Young Explorers to see that exploration isn’t only about finding something new, but about protecting what already exists. 

As the OceanXplorer reached Dili and prepared for the start of Mission Timor-Leste, the students’ journey came to a close — but their role was just beginning. Now ambassadors for the sea, they left with new skills, new questions, and a clearer understanding of how science and storytelling work together to protect the ocean. For this cohort of Young Explorers, the voyage from Singapore to Timor-Leste solidified that discovery is not the end of the story, but the very beginning of stewardship.