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Maritime Academies
Page 2
BY TARA ARONSON
© Copyright
1997 by Parents' Press
Not Just for Sailors
Despite Cal Maritime's exemplary
success rate and a stellar reputation for a direct, hands-on
approach to higher learning, the four-year state college of engineering,
ocean, and transportation studies, the smallest of the California
State University
system's 23 campuses, remains one of the best-kept secrets in
higher education on the West Coast. School officials concede
this is partly the result of the 72-year-old school's highly
specialized nature and partly because the public has the false
impression that employment of its graduates is limited to the
maritime industry.
Cal Maritime graduates have gone to work for such companies as General Electric, Westinghouse, Pacific Gas and Electric, General Motors, Scripps Institute, and San Francisco General Hospital, according to Aaron Martin, Cal Maritime's director of outreach and school relations.
"A lot of companies court our graduates," Martin said. "It's easier for them, so they say, because they are better trained."
What Erica Liked
Milton's family visit to the campus in her senior year dispelled many myths. Milton sat down with counselors and discussed her planned course of study and bright future options should she choose to pursue studies in the engineering field at Cal Maritime.
"They said it was a good field for someone my age, and they're looking for females," Milton said. "So I decided on the design side of engineering."
But it was the school's friendly atmosphere and hands-on approach followed by her discussions with several engineers at Chevron, where her father Johnnie Milton is a maintenance supervisor that ultimately won her over.
"Cal Maritime was different," Milton said simply. "There was more student-teacher contact, and all the classes were unique. I liked how they put the general education courses with your major courses throughout your stay, and they they're committed to helping you along the way.
"I realized I wanted to get in and get out, and get focused. I knew if I chose Cal Maritime, I'd be prepared, any way I wanted to go."
As with conventional colleges, students at Cal Maritime are expected to acquire academic breadth and technical expertise through classroom student and laboratory experience. What makes the school wonderfully untraditional, Milton said, is that many of these courses are taught in working boiler rooms and "pumps shops" instead of through textbook study in a classroom.
