Get Wet,... Feel the Heat,... Make the Call....

...is why Maine Maritime produces the best. We reinforce classroom instruction with extensive "hands-on" training, a major component of your education. You gain practical knowledge through actual experience in our numerous labs, aboard our vessels, and through co-operative education in private industry.

The approach to experiential learning varies from major to major and includes, but not limited to:

• at-sea experience
• oceanography cruises on our research vessels
• auxillary sail and small vessel training on the schooner Bowdoin and tug Pentagoet
• power generation in our power plant simulator
• business /marketing/ logistics experience through Students In Free Enterprise (S.I.F.E.)
• boat preparation in our operating marina
• leadership and management training through our Regiment and campus organizations and committees
• co-ops/internships in all of our programs
• ship handling and navigation exercises in the bridge simulator.

This is how you learn and why employers keep coming back.

MMA Training Cruises

During the first and third years, students in majors leading to unlimited USCG third assistant engineer (Marine Engineering Operations, Marine Engineering Technology, and Marine Systems Engineering - License Track majors) and third mate (Marine Transportation Operations major) licenses are required to participate in training cruises aboard the T.S. State of Maine.

First-year students in the Marine Systems Engineering non- license major participate on the freshmen cruise only.

Note: Candidates for the US Coast Guard 3rd assistant engineer license must complete 180 days sea time. USCG 3rd mate license candidates will be required to complete 365 days sea time. Sea time will be met through specialized laboratories, simulation, and three training cruises.

• Scheduled during May and June for at least 60 days, the training cruise visits a minimum of four ports per cruise, three days per port.
• The first cruise is designed to give the student an overall orientation in both deck and engineering areas. The junior cruise will involve training, watches and maintenance in the students' area of major.
• Successful completion of these training cruises, including a sea project for each cruise, is required for graduation.
• Four credit hours are awarded for each successfully completed cruise.
• Cruises are designed to develop practical skills required of a 3rd mate or a 3rd assistant engineer. These skills are developed through watch standing and experience in the operation and maintenance of the ship and all its appurtenances.
• During the summer after the sophomore year, USCG license students are assigned to merchant vessels as cadets for further familiarization in shipboard procedures, called Cadet Shipping.
• A U.S. passport is required for all students going on cruises.

Ports of Call

• 2002 - Cobh, IRELAND; Kiel, GERMANY; Portsmouth, ENGLAND; Tallinn, ESTONIA
• 2003 - Antwerp, BELGIUM; Tenerife, CANARY ISLANDS; Halifax, NOVA SCOTIA
• 2004 - Vera Cruz MEXICO; Bermuda; Tampa; San Juan PUERTO RICO
• 2005 - Aruba, Nassau BAHAMAS, Quebec City, CANADA, Boston, MA
• 2006 - Barcelona SPAIN, Cohb IRELAND, Gdynia, POLAND, Portland, ME
• 2007 - GIBRALTAR, Odessa, UKRAINE, Split, CROATIA, Halifax, CANADA
• 2008 - Norfolk, VA, CANARY ISLANDS, BERMUDA, Savannah, GA
• 2009 - San Juan, PR, Key West, FL, St. John, NEWFOUNDLAND, Baltimore, MD
• 2010 - Marseille, FRANCE, Kiel, GERMANY, Belfast, IRELAND, Portsmouth, ENGLAND
• 2011 - Norfolk, VA, Valetta, MALTA, Civitavecchia, ITALY, Cohb, IRELAND
• 2012 - Galveston, TX, CURACAO, BERMUDA, Charleston, SC
• 2013 - (proposed) - Tampa, FL, San Juan, PR, Halifax/Quebec City CANADA, 4th port TBD

Cadet Shipping

During the summer after the sophomore year, unlimited USCG license students are assigned to merchant vessels as cadets for further familiarization in shipboard procedures. These students major in:

• Marine Transportation Operations
• Marine Engineering Operations
• Marine Engineering Technology
• Marine Systems Engineering
      -  License Track

Note: Candidates for the US Coast Guard 3rd assistant engineer license must complete 180 days sea time. USCG 3rd mate license candidates will be required to complete 365 days sea time. Sea time will be met through specialized laboratories, simulation, and three training cruises.

• Cadet Shipping includes an extensive preparation program aimed at maximizing the learning experience in the real world of shipping. Here is a list of companies offering Cadet Shipping billets.
• Cadet shipping will involve training, watches and maintenance in the students' area of major.
• In addition to the practical experience gained, students have the opportunity to visit ports of call in the United States and foreign countries. In several cases, students have circumnavigated the globe.
• Many students find this experience to be a major advantage in finding employment following graduation.
• In recent years, most students on Cadet Shipping assignments received cadet wage and reimbursement for travel expenses.
• Seatime - A minimum of 60 days is required for 3rd Assistant Engineer license candidates, 90 days for 3rd Mate license candidates, which is credited toward the sea service required for a USCG license.
• Maine Maritime Academy was the first state maritime academy to incorporate this popular program into its curriculum.
• Each student must submit a satisfactory Sea Project, Cadet Shipping Report, Ship's Officer's Evaluation Report, and evidence of sea time to be awarded course credits.
• A passport, a drug-free certificate, and a merchant marine document are required for all students going cadet shipping.

Note: Freshmen and juniors in the unlimited license programs take a training cruise aboard Maine Maritime's training ship State of Maine.

This is a partial list of companies who offer cadet shipping billets to our students. It is not a mere coincidence that these companies are the same ones listed as "Employers" of our licensed graduates. Our students are trained so well that these companies want our graduates to work for them.

Your Future Begins Now

“There are aspects of every profession that cannot be learned in the classroom but must be learned where that profession is practiced   .  .  .   Judgment based upon experience must supplement theory.”

- Herman Schneider, engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati who started the first formal experiential education program at a university in the USA

The Maine Maritime Way

Three principles:

1. a sound academic foundation,
2. “hands on” experience
3. character development

are the underlying fundamentals of a Maine Maritime Academy education. 

“There is a course we teach that you won’t find in the course catalog. It’s called ‘confidence’ and our students learn it from cadet shipping, co-op courses and internships.”
-Alumnus, Class of 1973

Foundations are the support and underpinning of any structure, large or small.  Academic foundations are built from basic, appropriate information that the faculty imparts during classroom and lab time, and the challenge of solving problems and meeting deadlines. 

"Hands-on” or experiential education through co-op, internship and cadet shipping work experiences with businesses and companies who are competing each day in a global marketplace provide more than thirty percent of our students each year with this long established portion of the Maine Maritime Academy educational experience.

Ethical strength and integrity come from the discipline of doing the right things for the right reasons in the right way, and from the self-discipline of making honest, long-range choices. 

Co-op Office Mission Statement

We bring prepared students and interested employers together.

"Experience does matter:  the National Association of Colleges and Employer’s 2009 Student Survey found that graduates who had taken part in a co-op or an internship fared far better in the dismal job market of 2009 than their peers who didn’t have experience.

Overall, just 19.7 percent of the Class of 2009 who had applied for jobs had one by the end of April, but grads with an internship under their belt beat that average—23 percent had a job in hand.  For those who didn’t do an internship or co-op, the job market was especially unwelcoming:  just 14 percent of those who hadn’t been interns landed jobs."

-NACE’s 2009 Student Survey was conducted from February 19 through April 30, 2009; more than 35,000 students from more than 840 colleges and universities nationwide—including more than 16,500 graduating seniors.

“I look at the coop program this way. I am helping the school, and the student, and my facility. I get an extra pair of hands for the summer for those projects that never get done. I also get to look at a prospective employee;  it is a three-month interview.”.”.
- Alumnus, Class of 1988Services available through the Co-op Office:

• provide information to guide students through the job hunting and work experience part of their education,
• conduct cadet shipping and co-op workshops,
• proof-read and critique resumes and cover letters,
• send information to employers for consideration,
• coordinate student’s cadet shipping or co-op experience,
• assist student in finding current employer information,
• distribute and collect co-op documentation and projects,
• maintain a list of jobs which are currently available,
• maintain a library of selected current professional periodicals and newspapers and company information,
• promote employer recruiting visits,
• suggest companies and the appropriate ways to contact the people who make hiring decisions,
• maintain current information about companies, industries and available jobs,               
• conduct resume writing and job hunting workshops,
• coordinate the practical experience side of your education between the faculty and employer and student,
• sponsor employer presentations for students,
• coordinate employer interviews for seniors and co-op students

“My internship was the best course in my major.”
-IBL student, Class of 2006

A summary of the key features of cooperative education and internship requirements for each major.

“If you keep your mouth shut, your ears open, and learn from the people you work with, things seem to work out.”
-SVO Student, Class of 2008

Note:    (a)   Not all of which will earned through co-ops.