STI Youth Council

Australia
Rebecca Kuehn is studying medicine at the University of New South Wales. She took part in the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme in 2006 in an 11 day voyage from Brisbane to Sydney. The following year she received an Australian Sail Training Association (AUSTA) Youth Exchange Scholarship between Australia and the United Kingdom, and sailed for three weeks on-board the STS Lord Nelson from Las Palmas to Southampton as part of a mixed ability crew with the Jubilee Sailing Trust. She also completed the Jubilee Sailing Trust's Leadership At Sea Programme in 2007. Since then she participated in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on-board Young Endeavour in 2008, and sailed as a Watchleader onboard the Spirit of New Zealand in 2010. Rebecca is currently working on developing an Alumni youth sail training group within Australia.

Email: rebecca.kuehn@sailtraininginternational.org

Belgium

Sharon Desaever is a 21-year-old student at the University of Antwerp studying a Master's Degree in French Language and Literature. Her love for sailing begain in 2006 when she first participed at the The Tall Ships Races which was a life changing experience. Since then, Sharon's passion for the sea lives on along as well as enjoying French literature and cooking.
In 2010 Sharon was a Liaison Officer at The Tall Ships Races, welcoming the fleet to her home town, Antwerp. She then joined  STAB where she takes care of the communication and PR activities. As one of her responsibilties involves looking after STAB Alumni-network, it was a small step for her to assume the function of youth representative in September 2011.

Email: sharon@sailtrainingbelgium.org

Bermuda - represensative to follow

Canada - representative to follow

Denmark
Andreas Fink Mejlgaard has been sailing regularly since the spring of 2008, when at the age of 13 he made his first journey on the Jens Krogh.  He has a great interest of sailing both as a hobby and as a living.  He is studying seafaring in Frederikshavn, Denmark, with the desire to become an engineer.  Onboard Jens Krogh he acts as a watch leader, and is about to gain a certificate for sailing as an engineer on engines with limited size.  He attended the Tall Ships Races for the first time in 2010 when his home port Aalborg hosted the race, and he finally reached the required age of 15.

Email: to follow

Finland
Essi Suorsa studies foreign languages and business studies in English in HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki. She has sailed with STA Finland since 2004 and is now acting as a secretary in the Finnish Youth Sailors' (Suomen Nuorisopurjehtijat ry) Board.  She has volunteered as a Liaison Officer twice in Finland during The Tall Ships Races.  She also enjoys nature and her favourite area in Finland is the Archipelago of Turku and Åland.  Essi is interested in sustainable development and in the future would like to work with development aid projects.

Email: essi.suorsa@sailtraininginternational.org

France
Sophie Baviere is an architect. She sailed in The Tall Ships Races 2007 and 2008 on Belle Poule and Etoile respectively. She has undergone training with the French Navy (Préparation Militaire Marine) and has the rank of Midship Reserve Officer.

Email: sophie.baviere@sailtraininginternational.org

Germany
Lena Maekler holds a master's degree in European Tourism Management after having studied in Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and France and is working as a Marketing and Social Media Manager in a hotel.  Lena started sailing onboard yachts aged 14 and has been a member of Sail Training Association Germany since 2004, she is currently a deckhand on Alexander von Humboldt.  Lena took part in The Tall Ships Races 2008 (on the Liverpool - Bergen leg) and again in 2009 (Gdynia - St. Petersburg). In addition, she assists the German youth representatives of the Sail Training Association Germany and has been chosen to accompany an international youth exchange of the organisation "At Sea Sail Training" onboard Bark Europa as mentor and watch leader in 2011.

Email: lena.maekler@sailtraininginternational.org

Italy
Federica Barili is studying law and criminology in Genoa. Federica began sailing at the age of nine on Optimists, then later a range of boats from 420s to J24s, and now regularly crews a Tp Med 42. In 2002 she took part in The Tall Ships Races in the Mediterranean from Malaga to A Coruna on Pogoria and has also sailed on Palinuro and Amerigo Vespucci. In 2007 Federica worked in STA Italy's office helping with the organisation of The Tall ships Races Mediterranea and she continues to help with organising events for young trainees. She has also been a sailing judge since 2007.

Email: federica.barili@sailtraininginternational.org

Netherlands
Lisanne Bolt is studying veterinairy medicine and will start her masters later this year.  She began sailing at the age of 8 and sailed on optimists, pico’s and laser’s before joining The Tall Ships Races.  In the summer of 2008 she joined for the first time The Tall Ship Races (Baltic) and took part in Race 1 from Liverpool to Måloy on the Alba Explorer, coming both first in Class C and first overall.  In 2009 she joined De Gallant for three legs, incluiding the cruise-and-compagny and this year she will join De Gallant again from Antwerp to Aalborg.  She has recently been working to start a youth forum in the Netherlands.

Email: lisanne.bolt@sailtraininginternational.org

New Zealand
Arthur McGregor is a secondary school Physics teacher from Christchurch, New Zealand. He has been sailing since he was 11, on a variety of yachts.  He sailed as a trainee on the Spirit of New Zealand while at secondary school and still sails frequently as a watch leader onboard.  This led Arthur to become involved with the Spirit Voyagers' Club, a youth run organisation of ex-trainees, for four years, before taking on the role with STI Youth.  In 2011 Arthur headed overseas to explore the world, spending three months traveling through Africa, followed by a teaching job in the UK to make the most of holidays in Europe.  He hopes to experience The Tall Ships Races 2012.

Email: arthur.mcgregor@sailtraininginternational.org

Norway

Ingrid Elizabeth Haraldseid grew up in a family closely connected to the tall ships eventsin her hometown of Stavanger.  She has been fascinated by the Tall Ships and sailing since she was allowed to climb aloft for the first time aged only ten years old on the Christian Radich.  Ingrid has been a scout since the age of six, both in the sea scouts and now in a scout mountain rescue group where she practices outdoor life, including ski instructing.  Her first Tall Ships race was in 2010 and she has now sailed with all the three Norwegian vessels during less than 12 months and also seen it from the quay side in numerous cities and countries since 1997.  Ingrid's aim now is to gather enough former trainees from The Tall Ships Races in Norway to establish an alumni group.

 

Email: to follow

Poland
Anna Krawczyk works as a graphic designer and is currently studying fine arts in Warsaw, specializing in animation.  She went on her first tall ship voyage at the age of 16 onboard Pogoria and since that moment has spent a lot of time under her sails.  Anna is a member of the 'Education under Sails' Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to sailing with teenagers and has taken part in The Tall Ships Races many times, onboard Pogoria, Jacob Meindert and various other small yachts.

Email: anna.krawczyk@sailtraininginternational.org

Portugal
Carlos Possollo is a Project Engineer at Brisa. Carlos began sailing at the age of 15 and a year later took part in 'Comemorações no Mar 500' between Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon on Boa Esperança (7900 miles). He also sailed on Vera Cruz, Lisbon - Brugge - Lisbon (to participate in Sail Brugge, Belgium), and in the 50th Anniversary Tall Ships Races in 2006.

Email: carlos.possollo@sailtraininginternational.org

South Africa
Luke Gregor is studying at the University of Cape Town for an honours degree in oceanography, having an educational background in marine biology and oceanography. Luke crewed as a deckhand on Europa for six months in 2005. His voyage took him from South Africa to England (three months), then from Portsmouth to Cherbourg via Waterford as part of The Tall Ships Races and finally from Sardinia to Antarctica for another three months. Luke has volunteered with Cape Windjammers over the past year helping with local voyages as watch leader and giving special input on marine education. He has also recently been involved in integrating XO laptops (One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative www.oplc.com) to make them applicable to sail training.

Email: luke.gregor@sailtraininginternational.org

Spain

Ana Julia Muñoz is from Cadiz and currently studying Audiovisual Communication in Seville (France). Last year she lived and studied in Lille (France) as a Erasmus student, at the Charles de Gaulle University for 10 months.
Ana has always been in touch with sailing and races, mostly  dinghy saling (Optimist, L'Équipe, 420s...) from  the age of seven. Ana was awarded the Young Winner of the L’Équipe European Championship in Santander 2000, first clasificated at the L’Équipe Spanish Championship 2001 and at the L’Équipe Spanish Cup of the same year. Since then she has gaine seven years experience as a dinghy sailing teacher.
Ana has experienced sailing from Cadiz to Lisbon on the Portuguese ship Creoula as part of the crew and is looking forward to being involved with Sail Training International.

Email: siemprenitariel@hotmail.com

Sweden
Maria Cooper has grown up in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. At the age of 14 she signed on for her first Tall Ship voyage and immediately fell in love with the life on board.  Ever since, she has spent most of her summers sailing as a watchleader, mainly on the Swedish schooner T/S Kvartsita, and a majority of the weekends during the winter doing maintenance work on ships. She has been involved as a board member of sail training organisations, is a founding member of the Swedish Sail Training alumni association and has initiated the project Scandinavian Sail Training, which aims to unite Swedish and Scandinavian Tall Ships and their crews to ensure greater exchange and cooperation. Her interest has affected her choices in life and she has attended a sailing college where two to three months each year are spent sailing on board the barque T/S Gunilla. Having graduated in June 2010, she is now studying International Relations at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. 

Email: maria.cooper@sailtraininginternational.org

United Kingdom - representative to follow

United States of America
Shannon Dunfey-Ball grew up on the water - her father and uncle are commercial fishermen and lobstermen on the coast of Maine. Shannon's sailing career started when she joined her uncle’s crew for  the local ‘Thursday Night Race Series’ aboard the Andercraft 38 Phoenix out of Portland, Maine.  She then joined the crew of Schooner Roseway and AJ Meerwald. There, she learned more about seamanship, wooden boat maintenance/shipwrighting and the intimate group dynamics of being crew. Shannon now works with Educational Partner-Ships, an organization with a commitment to youth's involvement in sail training. 

Email: shannon.dunfey-ball@sailtraininginternational.org