On most days, if you drive down to the Cape in January you’re not going to find too many people walking about—unless of course you come down to Taylor’s Point on Buzzard’s Bay!
This week, the MMA campus has been getting busier and busier as 600-cadets and 100-staff prepare for Sea Term 2011: attending classes, emergency training in the pool, and loading the 540’ Training Ship Kennedy for the upcoming 6-week semester-at-sea traveling to Vera Cruz, Mexico; Bridgetown, Barbados; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Even though the snow on the ground indicates their trip is a vacation, it is by no means a pleasure cruise. Over the course of the next six weeks, these cadets will be working and learning on the TS Kennedy every single day and living in three-tiered bunks in rooms with up to 90 other cadets; of course, this all pays off with their three days of liberty in each port!
This exciting and unique trip is a cornerstone of the MMA education, but it has definitely evolved over the years as technology has become more accessible and sophisticated.
One major development is the Follow the Voyage program—an online blog documenting the experiences of the cadets for middle school students to learn from and middle school teachers to use in their classrooms as a real-life application of subjects like geography, math, and science. This year, our following classrooms reach as far north at Maine all the way south to New Jersey and beyond and include middle schools as well as elementary students and kindergarteners.
That’s not to say Follow the Voyage is only for educational purposes. Parents and loved ones are able to see and virtually “follow” their cadets working on board and prospective students will get to understand what learning at MMA is like from the student’s perspective.
As the TS Kennedy prepares to leave, we are excited to have you watch us along the way! Click here to read the blog or click the “Sea Term 2011” link on the main MMA page. If you have any questions or comments about Follow the Voyage, don’t hesitate to contact our Cadet Follow the Voyage Outreach Coordinators, 1/c Nicholas Lauria and 3/c Joshua Lamm at kvmu@seawave.net or seaterm2011@seawave.net!
