Dear Maritime Educators and Industry Partners,
Welcome to the premiere edition of the “BEACON” the newsletter of Maritime for Primary and Secondary Education Coalition (MPSEC) we hope you will find it informative and useful.
Last month we officially relaunched MPSEC and our new website (www.mpsecoalition.net) with a launching party well attend by over 100 educators and supporters around the country. Our keynote speaker was Admiral Mike Alfultis President of SUNY Maritime College who addressed the role the maritime academies and all of us have in creating interest and pathways to a 21st century maritime/marine career. This was followed by a demonstration of the new website and lively discussions in various breakout rooms. We are incorporating all of the comments into various improvements to the site, along with the ongoing addition of material and resources. You can watch the forum here.
Our goal, with your help, is to provide a central location to share information and best practices from around the nation between K-12 schools and post- secondary educational institutions, maritime community, industry, government agencies and marine employers.
This newsletter is planned for three times a year to coincide with the academic school years; summer, fall and spring when teachers are looking for material and starting new programs. We also plan to hold the same number of webinars to stay connected, with the ultimate goal of a national conference bringing us all back together again!
In this edition of the newsletter, we will introduce you to some of our associate editors from many sectors of our field. These professionals are the folks who populate the website according to their specific area of expertise. We have designed the site to focus on three principal players: students, educators and industry. The job of our associate editors is to post material, articles of interest and connections to supporting programs.
We are looking for input from all of you to expand our various areas, so send us your suggestions and consider being an associate editor.
We are excited to report in this issue that the Maritime Administration has made its initial selection of twenty-seven schools and educational institutions around the country to designate as a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education. Several of these institutions are longtime members and supports of our coalition, and we say “Bravo Zulu BZ” to all!!
We are looking forward to connecting with you all in this noble and worthwhile endeavor for our country thank you for your efforts.
Regards to all from your publishers,
Carleen & Art
Executive Director
NAMEPA
Captain/Dr Art Sulzer EdD, USN-Ret
Mariner/Naval Officer/Educator
