CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Kids in the Coastal Bend will now have the opportunity to learn about ships and how to drive them in their very own classroom.
CCISD is launching a new maritime program next school year at the new Mary Carroll High School campus that will teach students the basic safety skills needed to work in the maritime industry. That includes learning how to read maps and navigate through ship channels.
The program is being offered to students not just at CCISD, but to other schools — not of fish — but students from all around the Coastal Bend. CCISD students along with students from other school districts will be bused to the Mary Carroll High School campus for the program.
For the first year of the program, students will take four courses using a software program on computers, and then for the second year of the program, CCISD is hoping to bring in a ship simulator where students can drive and learn about the buttons on a ship.
The program will be taught by a real “catch” of a teacher — someone with Coast Guard experience.
“If we see growth in this program and the interest, we have the potential to make it bigger, so we have those plans in the future as well to increase the enrollment of this program,” Melody Pro, CCISD’s career technical education coordinator said.
Current plans include hoping to offer classes on the business aspect of maritime studies. Students who don’t slip in the program will come out with an OSHA thirty certification, which states that they learned about the general ship safety.
The program’s goal is to get students to work in maritime programs in Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend, like at the Port of Corpus Christi.
“The maritime program will give real world experience with our students, you know, with a focus on logistics, and we hope to expand in some other areas,” Pro said.
Ninth and tenth grade students hoping to “seas”, I mean seize the opportunity can start applying online February 1 until April 1 on a first come, first serve basis. They don’t need any special “krill”, I mean skills to apply.
Fine, I “shell” stop with the puns...
