Halloween!

It is already Monday and I feel like there is so much to do! Between a test tomorrow in Spanish, a facilitation in Business Communication on the rise of power of Turkey, and play practice there leaves me little time to do anything but work! Today is Halloween, a fun and goofy morning formation here at Mass. Maritime. This morning three of our Regimental Staff dressed up as the Blue Man Group, other cadets were Captain America, Civil War soldiers, pirates, doctors, Avatar costumes, some even dressed up as our company staff! Halloween is fun for the simple fact that we are able to get dressed up, have fun and see our friends in different costumes. Last Thursday there was the annual underclass Halloween dance (where Jason was at- check out his post!) where there is a costume contest full of a bunch of cool prizes and Captain America won! Other events last week including the pumpkin decorating contest where awards were picked by Admiral Gurnon himself based on best pumpkin decoration. Prizes including Captain's Inspection off, MMA sweatshirts and more. Although the school is regimented, and strict there is also a time to have fun and "flipping the switch" as we call it. This week consists of many tests, midterms, projects and preparing for the play on Thursday-Saturday. I can not believe tomorrow is the first day of November, and the fall semester is almost finished. Happy Halloween!

Who Ordered the Snow?

Well the Men and Womens Crew Team finished their season at the Head of the Fish on Saturday. All boats finished well in their races. The real fun came when we left Saratoga Springs, NY and attempted our drive home. The usual four and half hour drive took just over eight hours on the return. A bear of a blizzard hampered our travels. As we made our way into the Berkshires we hit the heart of the storm. We crawled along at a extremely slow pace. As we pulled into a rest stop for some food we noticed that there were cars stuck everywhere. It just wouldn't be right to leave someone stranded. The Mens Crew Team ended up moving three cars before eating dinner. We greeted each car with "Hello, we are the Crew Team. We're here to move your car." Thankfully here at Buzzards Bay we only got rain.

Looking forward to this week. It will certainly be a lot busier than last week. On Tuesday I will be giving a presentation on how longitude was discovered and used for navigation. This presentation will be given to a middle school group that is coming to explore our campus. On top of the presentation I have three tests and one quiz.

Friday fun!

The Women on the Water Conference was Thursday-Saturday. On Thursday night the women went to Plimouth Plantation for a nice meal. Unforuantely, due to the rain the women were not able to tour the Mayflower, but I hope the women who came from other parts of the country enjoyed themselves. On Friday Admiral's Hall was filled with women from MMA and different maritime academies coming to hear these professionals speak about the maritime industry. Many shipping companies were also represented at the conference. I was able to snap a few pictures before the rush of people went over to speak with them; they including MSC, Maersk Line Limited, and Conoco Phillips. Friday was a busy day for me, between classes, meetings and my new hobby. After going home and seeing my 7 year old sister riding horses at a farm down the road from my house, I decided I wanted to start taking lessons too. My roommate, who has been riding horses since she was 3, came with me and helped me during the lesson. I went to Middleboro after classes to Emerald J Equestrian Farm and had my first lesson in grooming, saddling, steering, how to stop, how to go and other things like how to walk behind the horses and talk to them, so they do not end up hitting you from being frightened! I have never done anything like that before and it was such a good time, I am looking forward to going again this Friday! I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend!

Ghosts and Calculus Tests

Well folks, it's that time of the year again, when the ghost and goblins are running about in search for some festive candy; it also happens to be MMA's annual Halloween Party. It's and event held every year for all freshmen and sophomores to go in there costumes of all kinds, with the most popular appearing to be the toga, and enjoy a night games, candy, contest, and dancing. I myself am much of a dancer, but I do enjoy a good chocolate bar from time to time, so i decided to stop by to the mess deck and see the action. The fun for me was short lived however due to the inevitable calculus test that I will be facing tomorrow. Nothing better then calculus to end the Maritime week. It will all be worth it in the end for this long week with my return home to Connecticut for the weekend to recouperate, see the loved ones, and hopefully get my costume for the infamous Halloween Morning Formation.

Mid Terms

Now is the time for mid terms at MMA. You can tell when they are coming because it seems like the whole student body is focused and either locked away in their rooms or filling our new library. The library is the perfect environment for anyone to study either individual or as a group. We have access to many desktop computers as well as a WIFI network that covers all of the buildings 4 floors. If a desktop laptop is not available then there are many ports all along the floor in convenient locations to plug in your laptop.

My first midterm is tomorrow in International Terrorism. In this class we have been covering a lot of information on the events that have taken place in the Middle East. Some of these include, Operation Neptune Spear (Attack on Bin Laden compound) to the rise of groups such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Yesterday I handed in my first lab report for Radiological Materials. It was a report on using one of the academy's Geiger Counters on a sample Cesium - 137 . Under the close supervision of our instructor we were able to take many readings of this highly radioactive compound. "Cesium 137 is the principle source of radiation in the alienation zone of Chernobyl". We only used a small amount of this compound so it was completely safe.

Mid Terms

Well last week a probably one of the hardest weeks that I have ever had at here MMA. I had four tests over three days plus one more yesterday. Back to usual grind this week. We are half way through the semester with the end just over the horizon.

Saturday was our second Open House of the year. It was a great success. Over 100 prospective students came to see the campus with there families. I spent my portion of the Open House at our new bridge simulator where I spoke with prospective students about Marine Transportation, MMA, and of course our brand new state of the bridge simulator. It's always interesting to talk to prospective students and their parents about MMA. They always have a wide variety of questions about sea term, academics, dorm life, and they even ask about the food. While I was talking we were fortunate to have a large cruise ship pass through the canal. Keep in mind that the cruise ship is bigger than the average ship in the Cape Cod Canal. I tend to get a little excited when ships pass by, especially one of this magnitude. The Cape Cod Canal has about 12,000 commercial vessels pass through each year.

Looking forward for the rest of the week, I will fortunately have no tests. The crew team however will be traveling on Friday to Saratoga, NY to finish the season at the Head of the Fish. After some great performances so far, we are looking to finish strong at the Fish.

This weekend

This weekend was quite exciting for me, because I was able to go home to New Jersey! Many cadets at Mass Maritime are from Massachusetts and are able to go home on the weekends, however there is a small group of the 'out of state' cadets who are unable to whether it is because of distance ( we have cadets here from Panama, California, Washington state etc) or because there is not a car available, any time spent at home is well needed. Through our emails, we are able to send out specific emails to students only asking if there are any cadets who would will write that they are going to a specific place and if you live around there and are willing to help with gas money, then you can join them. Last week I sent out an email asking if anyone needed a ride to New Jersey and one cadet took me up on my offer. It is a nice way to help out shipmates. As you can tell, I have a very big family. I'm the oldest of six beautiful children; aging from 2 years old to 16 years old.

This Friday I will find out whether I will have another internship opportunity with APM Terminals, the company I worked for this past summer! I would love to do another internship with them again, and I think it would be an even better experience because now that I am familiar with the terminal, I wouldn't be training again and would be better enabling my skills, but we will see. Many companies are under tight budgets right now in this hard economic times.

Today is the start of the long sleeve uniforms, and dress uniform being Dress Blues. This is probably my least favorite time of the school year, because it means winter is coming soon.

Career Fair 2011

October 13, 2011. I recently attended the Fall 2011 career fair, where about sixty companies came to Massachusetts Maritime Academy looking for potential interns and graduating cadets to hire.  As seniors, we were told to wear our spiffy Dress Blue uniform and to bring plenty of resumes. From 1600 to 1700 only seniors were allowed to attend, which allowed us to have one hour to talk to those companies without any distractions. I walked around the career fair and talked to eight companies, including the FBI, and sent out about seven resumes while I was there, pretty good for only an hour. I also saw my roommate, who talked to a lot of companies as well, even though he already has an offer.

When I was there, I ran into some familiar faces. One of them is Mr. Ryan DeCoste, who was one of my squad leaders in 6^th company during my freshman year. The following year he became the Regimental Executive Officer, which is the 2^nd highest cadet position at MMA. People respected him while he was a squad leader and later as the Executive Officer, however when I was freshman I played chess with him a few times, but he beat me within ten minutes every single time. Mr. DeCoste was representing the FBI, and he seems enjoy his career and even tried to talk me into it.

As per the norm, most companies had very cool propaganda. I actually got a tube of cool pens and pencils which were made from recycled cardboard. If you haven’t gone to a career fair yet, you should when the chance presents itself. It’s a great way to gain some experience in talking to employers, as well as a way to grab some cool gadgets.

First Post

Hey MMA, this is 3/C Jason Boucher and this is my first post as the New Cadet Blogger. I've been pondering what to write for this first post and I figured hey why not describe this weekends past activities. As a resident of the great State of Connecticut, I like many don't have the opportunity to head home to recuperate from the weeks past rigors. So like most, you got to make your own fun for the weekends here at MMA; for me, I figure why not spend my time participating helping out at some academy events. On Saturday, I found myself waking up late to run my booth at the Open House, sleeping in till 8 just seemed to tempting to pass up, but it happens. The morning was spent helping introduce hopeful new cadets to a life here at MMA and possible clubs they should take a look at. I was there representing the MMA Drill Team that morning, and to my surprise, spent a lot of time answering the question, "So what exactly do you do?" But the day here was not over as we had the all to important Admirals Cup game against the infamous Maine Maritime Academy. I must say I was never the biggest football fan coming here but that was one heck of a game. All seemed to come out the cheer on the Bucs that day, from the freshman to the RC and myself in the band wearing our new uniforms. The final score was ME 6 MA 34, with the Admiral Cup returning to Buzzards Bay. You would think that the weekend would be over, but there was one more thing to do. On Sunday, a few of the band members and I had the opportunity to attend the United States Army Jazz Band Concert in West Yarmouth. What better way to spend a otherwise boring afternoon then to see a live Big Band play some sweet jazz. It was a great way to end the weekend. The point of this rant of my personal weekend here at MMA is to let all you out here know that you don't always need to go home to find some fun here at the Academy. There are always chances to either help out or support your school, or even get a free show that you would otherwise never know about or enjoy with giving it a chance. There are things to do around every corner, you just got to recognize and seize the opportunity.

Presidents & Trustees Annual Association Meeting

Tonight, seven of the MMA Trustee's and Capt. Lima went to Framingham State to participate in the annual Presidents & Trustees Association Meeting. I had never been to Framingham State before, and I was in shock when I saw how very large the campus and student population was! When we arrived, each of the trustees were assigned different tables so that we were able to mingle and speak with trustees from around the state. In attendance were Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Framingham State, Westfield State, Bridgewater State, Salem State, Massachusetts College of Art, Fitchburg State, Worcester State and of course, your very own Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The night started out with a beautiful workshop by Judith McLaughlin, the director of Higher Education at Harvard University. She spoke about the need to seek an Ambassadorship for the trustees and challenged us to discuss what that meant for each of our universities and what concerns we had about it. In these groups, one person was nominated to represent each table to bring back to the entire trustees and out of the nine tables, 4 of the representatives were from MMA! Talk about awesome leadership!

Tonight, our guest speaker was Lt. Governor Murray and I was able to speak with him briefly and get a picture with him. Here is a picture of his speech, but I am looking forward to putting up our picture when I get it from his official photographer.

Women on the Water Conference

Last night at 1900, over 35 women mustered in the Fantail to discuss and go over the series of events at the Women on the Water Conference which will be sponsored at MMA October 27-29th.

"October 27th through the 29th, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA), in partnership with the Maritime Administration (MARAD), will host the fifth annual Women on the Water (WOW) Conference in Buzzards Bay, MA. The Conference will bring together cadets from the Federal and State Merchant Marine Academies with professional women and men who are leaders in different sectors of the maritime industry. The event will be an excellent opportunity for the cadets to learn about the exciting careers that are open to them directly from successful women and men, as well as to hear about current issues affecting the maritime industry. This is also an excellent opportunity for the cadets and professional women and men alike to meet and network with others in the maritime industry. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for the Women on the Water Conference, or if you have questions regarding the conference, please send an e-mail to: womenonthewater@dot.gov." -http://www.marad.dot.gov/mariners_landing_page/women_on_the_water/WOW2011home.htm

I am very much looking forward to this opportunity to be able to speak to and network with women in the industry. Since women are fairly new to the maritime industry, compared to men, I think that their valuable perspective and experience is something to be admired.

If you haven't signed up already, don't forget!

Registration here- http://www.maritime.edu/index.cfm?pg=2363

Typical Weekend

Along with Academics and the Regiment I also have a weekend job. I work at the Newton Yacht Club as the club steward. Most cadets here work either over the weekend or some work during the week when they don't have classes. Last semester I was given work study and chose to work at a local camp site located about a mile from campus.

I also was able to go out to the gun club and let off some stress. MMA offers a gun safety course to all cadets for a very small fee. This was a great opportunity for me because of my interest in law enforcement. Many of the current Emergency Managment students have aspirations to join Federal Law Enforcement Agency's such as the FBI, DHS, DEA, ATF etc. A graduate from 2 years ago is currently working for the FBI.

Career Fair

Last Thursday was the first time that I had been to a Career Fair. The night before, I made sure to buy resume paper and have my resume looked over by fellow WRC tutors. I prepared my resume and brought it with me the day of, determined to give it to interested companies. The first hour of the fair, the Seniors are the only ones permitted to attend. This is so Seniors have more one on one time with the companies in hopes to get jobs after MMA. As many seniors walked down to the gym in their dress blues, I told many of them good luck. Over the past few week, I have revised and proofread many resumes for these hopeful seniors. The rest of the cadets enter after that first hour and are encouraged to speak to many of these companies about internships and co-ops. As I entered the gym, many tables, friendly faces, posters and people ready to speak with students greeted me on the way in. I spoke with many business related companies and gave out my resume to many people. I also decided that I wanted to look globally for internships and this past weekend I applied to many internships in Europe.

I enjoyed speaking to professionals from a variety of companies and I spoke to many of the transportation logistics companies such as Mass Bay Commuter Rail about possible internships. Although our field is so specialized, it enables us to also take a specialized type of industry such as transportation and apply what we learn in the classroom to other forms of transportation such as air freight and rail. Wish me luck as I am waiting to hear back from these companies!

For more information check out this article on the front page of the maritime.edu website!

Week of Tests

The Men's Crew team had a very successful weekend. We placed 8th and 7th at the Head of Snake in Worcester, Ma and the New Hampshire Championships in Pembroke,NH. It was a tough challenge racing twice in the same weekend but it paid off well with great finishes in both races.

This week is is one of the weeks that I never look forward to. A week where I have tests in the majority of my classes. Coming up on Wednesday I have an exam in Meteorology and an academic challenge (test) in Celestial Navigation 2. On Friday I have a mid term in Global Marine Distress and Safety Systems 2. Following up on Monday I have my first test in Tugs and Towing. It looks like I'll be spending my free time studying in the library. The library always proves to be a great place to study.

Coming up this weekend is another Open House. The Crew team will be taking this weekend off from racing in preparation for our last race of the season, the Head of the Fish in Saratoga, NY.

Blue Hills Observatory

This weekend was absolutely amazing! Since I'm not from the New England area, I have to have creative ideas for the weekend and sometimes I think people from Massachusetts area miss out on all of the beauty around us. This is probably because they're so accustomed to it, but regardless I love it. This Saturday I went to the Blue Hills Observatory where I hiked up the hill. I went on the ski lift and got to go to one of the oldest functioning NOAA observation towers. Saturday was beautiful and the colors were magnified as the sun went down. Because the ski lift was closed by the time we were done hiking, we had to walk down this very steep hill. It was a beautiful day, and looking at all of the foliage was certainly enjoyable. Yesterday was Columbus Day, and although there was no school, I was at MMA finishing up homework and essays. I hope everyone had a great weekend! This week has alot in store for me:

Wednesday- Tutoring!

Thursday- Career Fair

Friday- I might go home

The play is going well, but it will be coming up quickly! We are already starting to memorize our lines and finalize all of the blocking.

Exciting Week

It was great to have a nice three day weekend after a long stretch of challenging classes. This week should prove to rather relaxed given it's a shorter week. Looking back to the weekend, the Mens Crew team put up a third place finish at the Popes Island Regatta in New Bedford, MA. We were a little skeptical about rowing in this regatta due to the nature of its location. It took place in New Bedford harbor which is very open and very busy. We are used to rowing along rivers with little to no traffic as well as calmer waters. New Bedford was quite the opposite to be honest. It was very busy with boat traffic and had the water was a little rougher than we are used to. Overall we had a great day rowing, the weather couldn't have been nicer. Also it's nice to bring home a medal to show our achievements. Next weekend we are headed to Worcester to row.

Looking forward to this week, there are a few exciting things that will be happening around campus. First there will be a presentation on Wednesday night from Military Sealift Command about what it is like to ship with them. On Thursday evening there will be a career fair held. It is always exciting to go the career fairs to see what companies are out there and to get the know the faces behind the names. I look forward to attending both of these events because graduation is less than two years away.

Until next time,

2/c Joshua Lamm

joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

MINI CRUISE

Above is a picture of the cadet candidates during Mini Cruise 2011. Cruise was a great way to break up the end of orientation and start to train the C/C's how to use what is in their Chaffing Gear in full scale. C/C's learned to navigate the ship, which to most was a challenge.

I was one of 7 squad leaders that was picked at random to go ahead of the Kennedy and assist in mooring lines. The 7 were made up of 2 Deckies, 2 Engineers, 2 EM and 1 MSEP. Needless to say the majority of us really had no idea what we were doing. But lesson learned, be prepared for anything. After a couple of failed attempts we figured it out and were able to get the first hawser tied.

Updates!

Tonight I finished up with my summer co-op project at APM Terminals, and made any corrections that my peers saw fit. I am certainly glad that I got my project looked over before I am submitting it because I feel a lot more confident in my work. It has been bittersweet to write, especially since my friends from APM have been emailing me all week. To me, this is the end of the summer and beginning of a very busy school year.

This week has been very busy. Between writing 2 papers, a proposal, finishing my co-op projects, play, choir, and tutoring I haven't had much time to write. Some new and exciting things have been happening though around school. Firstly, the Women on Water will be at Mass. Maritime October 27-29th and if you haven't signed up yet, sign up here! I spoke with Christina Colarusso and will be helping the day of show women and their families around MMA, so make sure you say hi when you come! Women have not been in the industry all that long, however their influential positions they achieved with hard work and determination. I love being able to speak with these women and hearing their story; I find it very inspirational.

Another random, and exciting event is that my class decided on a class ring design! In the upcoming weekend we will be getting our rings sized and ordered for ring dance on May 19th, 2012!

Busy Busy

This weekend marked a couple of firsts for MMA. On Saturday we hosted the first open house of the Fall. It was a great success. Over a hundred prospective students spent the day touring around the campus learning about all that MMA has to offer. I spent the duration of the Open House in our brand new ship simulator. I talked to the tour groups about the Marine Transportation Major, such as what we learn, what our options are out of school, and how we use the new simulator to prepare for our future careers at sea. It was an excellent turn out and I am looking forward to the next one coming up on October 22.

Sunday was the Crew Teams first Regatta of the season. I am happy to report that it was an excellent day for rowing. It was cool, cloudy, and a almost no wind. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We brought three boats to compete in Lowell. Two mens fours and a womens four. All boats rowed well for their first outing. The Lowell Textile Regatta is the longest race of our season, thankfully. With shorter races and more practice on the water I'm positive that times and places will improve.

Looking ahead:

-Blood Donation (Tonight)

-Regatta in New Bedford

-Columbus Day (No Classes)

-Open house

Until Next Time,

2/c Joshua Lamm

joshua.lamm@maritime.edu

Learning Resource Center

Tonight I am in the library studying for my Transportation Operational Management test tomorrow with a group of friends and I am also working on my Business Communication Memorandum and Proposal. Needless to say after a night of play practice and choir this adds to how busy life has become. I don't mind and I find myself studying and focusing more when I actually go to the library to do my work. If you walk around the library you will find many cadets (Officers and Youngies included) working with others, by themselves and getting tutored in many different subjects. On the 3rd floor of the ABS Information Commons is where the Academic Resource is located and subjects from Calculus 3 to Physics can be tutored. Many youngies come to the library to get help with Intermediate Algebra and Trigonometry and seek advice on the steps for Webworks. On the 4th floor, is the Writing Resource Center and my personally favorite floor of the ABS Information Commons, although I am entirely bias. I work at the Writing Resource Center as a tutor. The WRC is a place where students come to seek tutoring for everything from research essays, resumes and memos. Tonight, I am at the library to have a fellow tutor proofread my memo before I hand it in tomorrow for class. The library is a place where academics become a priority and the students are able to work together with other students even outside of their grade. The library is filled with students up until the time of it closing at 2200- it has become a new place of solitude for me, and I'm happy to see so many other cadets using it as a resource as well.

First post

This will be my first post as a MMA student blogger.

The most important thing I've learned here is time management. As a Cadet at MMA as well as a student finding the balance between the two while having a personal life is difficult to say the least. My schedule this semester involves 6 classes.

1. Risk Managment
2. International Terrorism
3. Macro Economics
4. Radiological Materials
5. Environmental Math
6. Statistics
   

Also on my plate is Drill Team. The Team practices 4 times a week and is always in communication through emails and our Facebook group. We have an annual competition that we attend at Cornell University. Last year we took 2nd place for inspections beating schools such as US Naval Academy, West Point and Norwich.

I am also a member of 7th Company where I hold the position of Honor Guard Squad Leader. My duties are to train incoming cadets as well as assist in supervising during events such as Parades, Memorials and Funerals.

The Maritime Players are currently rehearsing for their show The Passion of Dracula. I am participating as the Stage Manager. The cast meets 4 days a week and go over as many as 8 scenes in an hour.

All of this on top of homework, studying and a weekend job. This is all possible through what I've learned over my 3 years about time management.