Would-be pirate adjusts her sails in maritime program

“Yo ho, yo ho! A pirate's life for me,” 11-year-old Aleah Little hummed as she did the next best thing: swabbing decks and scraping seagull droppings off the galley roof.

The youth program on Galveston’s tall ship Elissa — plus, too many viewings of “Pirates of the Caribbean” — sparked her love for the sea. Little unfurled the sails, tied knots, and polished “so much brass.” Instead of derailing her dream, the elbow grease confirmed it: She could do this forever.

Nearly a decade later, Little is finding her sea legs thanks to San Jacinto College’s maritime program and a recent summer internship in Alaska.

While at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career and Technical High School, Little considered a maritime academy as her next step. But she charted a different course after learning about the Promise @ San Jac Scholarship, which would cover a two-year maritime transportation associate degree 100%.

“The scholarship made it easy to choose San Jac,” she said. “Otherwise, I’d have to get a bunch of student loans.”

At San Jacinto College’s Maritime Campus, her training has alternated between classroom and hands-on practice — from safety drills and charts to maritime law.

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought,” she said. “You think, ‘It’s a boat … just drive the boat.’ But you have to know so much more — how to save people, what to do in emergencies, how to fill out a chart.”

In summer 2025, Little interned as a deckhand on whale and glacier tour boats for Allen Marine near Juneau, Alaska. Her work shift began as early as 3 a.m., when she started the engine and inspected the 150-passenger catamaran. Other duties ranged from leading safety demos and tying up to cruise ships to chipping glacier ice for passengers’ drinks.

Alaska was the farthest Little had ever traveled from home. She saw humpback whales and orcas breaching the inky-blue water and mountain goats zigzagging up cliffs. As the iceberg lookout, she scanned for submerged ice while listening to glaciers cracking like thunder from a quarter mile away.

“We did a lot of ice dodging,” she said. “We didn’t want to end up like the Titanic.”

Nearly 3,600 miles from Houston, Little never expected to meet someone from home on her boat, much less find out the passenger sipping hot chocolate in the galley was San Jacinto College’s Chancellor Dr. Brenda Hellyer.

“It was such a crazy coincidence!” she said.

In August 2026, Little finishes her maritime degree. Enjoying the camaraderie of a small crew, she has exchanged the idea of captaining the Black Pearl for joining a tugboat company on the West Coast.

Sometimes even a would-be Captain Jack Sparrow can adjust her sails.

“There are so many options out there,” she said. “Your ideas might change once you have more knowledge — go with the flow.”

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About San Jacinto College

Surrounded by monuments of history, evolving industries, maritime enterprises of today, and the space age of tomorrow, San Jacinto College has served the people of East Harris County, Texas, since 1961. The College is ranked second in the nation among more than 1,100 community colleges, as designated by the Aspen Institute and was named an Achieving the Dream Leader College of Distinction in 2020. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution that spans five campuses, plus an online college, San Jacinto College serves approximately 45,000 credit and non-credit students annually. It offers more than 200 degrees and certificates across eight major areas of study that put students on a path to transfer to four-year institutions or enter the workforce. The College is fiscally sound, holding bond ratings of AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and Aa2 by Moody’s. San Jacinto College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.