Beyond Kent: Stories of Community and Purpose

Beyond Kent is a new alumni spotlight series featuring Kent School graduates who carry the School’s Mission into the wider world, contributing to the common good. Each story celebrates engaged citizens living with purpose, strengthening the communities they serve, and making an impact locally and beyond. 

---

Alumni Spotlight: Robin Purnell Mills '88

Robin Purnell Mills ’88 is the Program Director at Northwest Maritime in Port Townsend, WA, whose mission is to engage and educate people of all ages in traditional and contemporary maritime life. In her role, Robin has worked to broaden access to NW Maritime, focusing on vocational programs that provide young people with maritime experience and job opportunities. Robin earned a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master’s in Education and Teaching from Old Dominion University. She lives with her husband and three children — all of whom have spent a great deal of time at sea — in Port Townsend. Robin’s family has deep roots at Kent, including her father, Puck Purnell ’64, brother, Burr Purnell ’90, and niece Ellie Purnell ’22.  

I love providing opportunities for those furthest away from them. When I was teaching, it was the “ah-ha” moments. Now, it’s the networking, program development, and the ambition of this organization, and from that, the opportunities it can provide for young people. 
 

What are some of your Kent experiences that were most influential?

Kent was the stepping stone for me as a leader, [beginning with] community living — working with and living with others. Connected with that, I would say the jobs [program] and the expectation of participating in your community. Student leadership was one of the ways I contributed. I was in student leadership from my Fourth Form year on and then Prefect of Handford Dorm [on the Hill Campus] in my Sixth Form year. Networking — not what you know but who you know — I lean on that a lot. Kent’s motto — Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, Self-Reliance — fits right into the trajectory of my life from growing up in Maine, to Kent, to how I live my life now.

 

When did your interest in being on the water begin?

I did an Outward Bound course [between sophomore and junior years of college], and that gave me direction and purpose. It got me excited about working on the water and being on boats. I had grown up sailing with my grandfather on Buzzard’s Bay, but it was that Outward Bound course and connecting my personal growth with the experience of sailing that really inspired me. So, on the day I graduated, I went to California and started working with Outward Bound. And I just loved it. I loved the people. I loved everything about what Outward Bound represents, which is not that much different from Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and Self-Reliance.

 

After moving to the Pacific Northwest, how did you find your way to the Northwest Maritime?

I started meeting people who would give me time on the water, specifically sea time, because I wanted to get a U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s license so I could be an Instructor Captain for Outward Bound. I did boat deliveries up and down the East and West Coasts, and out to Hawaii, and then I started working in the program here in the San Juan Islands. I worked there for six years and spent 75 days on the water every summer with students. It was awesome! The programs that I oversee [at NW Maritime] are very much inspired by Outward Bound because a lot of us who used to work there in the ’90s in Anacortes [Washington], “retired” to Port Townsend.

 

You started a program at NW Maritime in partnership with your county’s Juvenile Services. Can you tell us about that? 

I started it in 2018, and it has had a couple of iterations. I think the biggest thing it's done is expand our services and programming to those who wouldn't normally have access to or know about them. The program is changing the trajectory for some people who would not normally have that [opportunity]. There's definitely a need for more than what these young people know is out there. We have the Washington State ferry system, which is a huge opportunity for young people to get jobs that don't require a college degree.

 

As Program Director, you oversee recreational, educational, and vocational programs. What are the programs that specifically prepare young people for maritime careers? 

Our vocational programs include the one I started and the Port Townsend Maritime Academy, which is focused on industry-recognized credentials and the vocation and skills needed for the maritime industry, specifically vessel operations. We also started the Maritime High School in 2021. The Port of Seattle had come to us in 2019, asking us to help them start the state's first-ever standalone [maritime] high school because they knew there was a need for a maritime workforce in Seattle. We have four staff members there, and we bring the maritime curriculum and pay for a lot of the certifications and opportunities the students have. We just graduated our first class last year in partnership with the Highline Public School District, south of Seattle.

 

What are the opportunities for students who graduate from your programs? 

About 75% of our high school graduates are going into some sort of maritime [training], whether it's going to Maine Maritime Academy or Cal Maritime, directly to the workforce, or some sort of certificate program. One of the projects I'm working on is helping people understand that maritime is more than just being a ferry captain or an engineer. It could be anything from naval architecture or maritime logistics, to marine welding or marine scientists working on water quality and ocean acidification. One of the things we've done over the last couple of years is organize maritime into three pathways so it's easier for people to understand and imagine themselves in it. If young people can't see themselves in it, it's really hard to imagine themselves doing it.

 

Is there a relationship between NW Maritime and the maritime academies?

As a founding partner in starting the Maritime High School, we’ve gotten the attention of the maritime academies. Maine Maritime has become quite interested in a project we have called the Blue Schools Initiative. This is an organizing structure for bringing communities, industry, schools, and young people together to advance three areas: understanding maritime careers; being connected to your community and caring about it from a stewardship perspective; and feeling like you have access and know how to be connected to the water. We were in Brunswick [Maine] a couple of weeks ago and had a summit with a wide variety of stakeholders, and it was really well received. 

 

What are some of the students who have gone through your programs doing today? 

There are kids who have taken programs with us since they were five. One in particular attended Cal Maritime and is now working at UMass Dartmouth as a marine scientist. One of the first students in the program I started with Juvenile Services worked at a local marina driving the haul-out lift for two years while he got his GED. Now he's at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. He already has a job that he can return to as a shipwright. Those are the moments that make me feel like, “Yeah, this is good work.” I guess you could even take it back to the Kent motto. By giving them opportunities and helping them realize what life could be like, they then cultivate their own sense of responsibility and their ability to take care of themselves.  Young people these days need that. They need purpose and to feel connected to each other and the world around them. Our programs do that. 

 

You’ve mentioned transformative maritime experiences. In what ways are participants transformed through their involvement?  

We do bold, audacious work, and in the riskiness of that comes transformation. The sea is the most powerful teacher we know.

 

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

I love providing opportunities for those furthest away from them. When I was teaching, it was the “ah-ha” moments. Now, it’s the networking, program development, and the ambition of this organization, and from that, the opportunities it can provide for young people. I really thrive in community settings. I thrive being part of a team. I thrive being part of something bigger than myself. I thrive with a sense of contribution and purpose. And so if I feel like that is clear to me, then I'm pretty darn motivated.

 

What advice would you offer to Kent students?

I would say really lean into the Kent motto – Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and  Self-Reliance. What does that mean to you? Those are really powerful. If you have lived [those values] at Kent, how can you continue to do so as you transition away from Kent?