Our History
Founded in February 2014 by three Georgetown undergraduate students, the Caravel launched online in October 2014. By December of the same year, Georgetown University recognized the Caravel as an official campus publication. We published our first print edition in April 2015.
Global trade in 2010 was 50 times larger than in 1913, and 90 percent of that trade passed over the oceans. They are arteries for the global exchange of goods that underpins an interdependent world economy.
The seas are also a stage for conflict. Governments invest hundreds of billions of dollars a year militarizing the oceans. Small maritime disputes can have far-reaching effects on the other side of the world.
Oceans represent complex interaction. The very caravels our newspaper is named for brought death and oppression across the seas to a “new world.” We represent a new Caravel for a new age: we shed light on continuing systems of oppression that prevent us from building a more peaceful, just, and equitable world.
Over the years, we have grown far beyond our founding mission. In pursuit of this expansion, we have hosted major events to further inform our readers, including the Ambassadors Summit: Climate and Conflict in April 2017 to bring together representatives from more than a dozen embassies. We also created a collection of digital platforms to bring the Caravel into the 21st century. We founded Compass World in January 2017 to expand our coverage, followed in September 2018 by Compass Gender, Compass Money, and Compass Futures. Our digital platforms have tripled our online subscriptions and broadened our readership to an international audience.
As the fastest-growing student publication at Georgetown, we are a work-in-progress—made possible only by the hard work of our staff. Today, we take pride in a staff of more than 100 students dedicated to providing quality reporting on international affairs. We have no doubt that our current and future staff members, with reliable determination, will renew the Caravel’s determination to understand and inform our complex world.