A college that promises more
By Russ Lynch
than academics is looking
for isle students
Star-BulletinWith the right education, ocean lovers can make a career out of working on the sea.
That's the message Hawaii graduates of the California Maritime Academy want to convey as the school's training ship, the Golden Bear, visits Honolulu this week.
About 20 local high school career counselors will be aboard ship tomorrow for brunch to hear the academy's pitch -- a four-year college, part of the California state university system, that graduates students with a difference.
Not only do academy graduates leave the school with a bachelor's degree, they also receive an operating license that will lead them to be a ship's deck officer, an engineer or other seagoing trade specialist, and a commission in the Navy or Coast Guard reserve.
The Golden Bear -- nearly 500 feet long and the largest and fastest oceanographic ship in the world when it was collecting ocean information for the Navy -- will be at Pier 2 in Honolulu Harbor tomorrow and Thursday, hosting local dignitaries and business people that the academy hopes will help finance it.
California Maritime Academy
The California Maritime Academy's training ship Golden Bear,
moored at the school's campus in Vallejo, Calif. The ship will be
in Honolulu this week to pitch local high-school students on the
idea of training for a career at sea.
It is on the first leg of a 15,875-mile training cruise that it will take it from Hawaii to Fiji, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, Japan, Alaska and Washington before returning home to Vallejo, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area.On board are 220 students -- 180 men and 40 women -- and 40 academy staff. Students get 60 days a year at sea while they are at school, on the Golden Bear and commercial vessels.
Caitland Croughan, the academy's director of development, said the combination of academic education and hands-on experience all but guarantees jobs for graduates.
The school for several years has had 100 percent placement -- at an average starting pay last year of $43,000 -- and it is not uncommon to have one corporate recruiter on campus for each two graduates on graduation day, she said.
Out-of-state tuition costs about $18,000 next year but students from Hawaii may qualify for a scholarship that brings it down to about $11,000, according to the school.
Capt. Frank Whipple, Honolulu port captain for the U.S. Coast Guard, is a 1973 graduate who went right into the Coast Guard after the academy.
"For the local folks here who really love the ocean, this is the one job where you get to live with it," Whipple said. His job entails responsibility for safety, oil leakage cleanup and other oversight of ships visiting anywhere in Hawaii.
Other local graduates of the academy work as harbor pilots, chief engineers, ship captains and harbor managers.
Bill Nickson, Hawaii district manager of Transmarine Navigation Co., said many of the graduates and other supporters are getting together to help the training ship's visit. His company is acting as the port agent for free. Hawaiian Tug & Barge Corp. is donating the towing. Harbor pilots are donating their services. The Propeller Club and the Navy League and unions such as the ILWU also are involved.
California Maritime Academy Open House
What: Training Ship Golden Bear "open ship," free to all visitors. Students will conduct ship tours
