News From Fort Schuyler

December 1, 2008 - Volume 8, No. 41

EARLY ACHIEVER - A cadet who hails from Colts Neck, DEAN HAKIM 2012, received a Congressional Award for Youth from Congressman Chris Smith of the 4th district in New Jersey. According to the college website, the award was created to recognize and promote achievement, initiative and service with reference to personal development, physical fitness and expedition/exploration activities. He attended the M.A.S.T (Marine Academy of Science and Technology) high school, which is located near the Sandy Hook light house, before entering Fort Schuyler. Dean, an Eagle Scout and avid competitive yachtsman, is a member of the Maritime College sailing team.

FROM RESEARCH TO LEGISLATION - Prof. SHMUEL (SAM) YAHALOM, Director of Research at the college and Principal Investigator for the recent Maritime Support Service Location Study, testified before New York City's Committee of Waterfront on 25 November. He urged the committee to heed the findings of his study as it considered amendments to the New York City Charter in relation to its waterfront advisory board.

He recommended that the board reach out beyond the city line to collaborate with bi-state agencies and communities since seaport planning is a regional activity. Sam also cited other findings in his research which call for the city to increase maritime industry support service infrastructure, retain and preserve zoning for existing berthing areas for the industry, and to develop long range maritime support service plans as part of the PlanNY2030 initiative. He concluded his testimony "...port attractiveness to the shipping industry is rooted in having a healthy maritime and a maritime support service industry, which provides efficient maritime and maritime support services and has access to shoreline property, affordable facilities and long-term support of the City, the other government in the region and the community at large." (For more on this see NFFS 8:40 and also go to www.sunymaritime.edu)

CARNEGIE CONCERT - On Monday, January 15 at 8:00 p.m. there will be a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall's Weil Recital Hall in support of the Virginia Maitland Sachs Maritime Scholarship Program and Virginia's House of Hope (VHH). This, the second VHH annual concert, will feature Monica Yunus, an up-and-coming American soprano of Bangladeshi-Russian descent. (Yes, her father is Nobel Prize recipient, Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank.) You can read more about her at Wikipedia or listen to her sing on YouTube or go to www.MonicaYunus.com. For more information about tickets for the concert go to the Alumni Association website - www.fsmaa.org

In 2006 Clay Maitland, the son of the late Virginia Maitland Sachs, and Managing Director of the International Registries, Inc., also established the $100,000 Clay Maitland Scholarship in International Transportation Management at SUNY Maritime College. As then College President, Adm. John R. Ryan, commented: "Not only is Clay a guardian of all that is good within the world's commercial shipping industry, he cares deeply about its future. That is why he chose to invest his time, energy, talent and financial support in educating future leaders within the maritime industry."

http://www.sunymaritime.edu/1ngot/1mages/News/2006_dinner_htm/Copy%20of%20index.htm

LANGUAGE PROGRAM FOR ENGINEERS - Last month Google found NFFS a press release entitled 'SUNY Maritime College is First in Nation to Create A-WIT Technologies C Stamp Engineering Lab.' The item went into some detail, indicating that Fort Schuyler's engineers will be the first undergraduate students in the world to work in a engineering laboratory totally outfitted with this microcomputer-based hardware platform. JOHN BOCKELMANN, Professor of Engineering is quoted "The better our engineering education is, the better students are prepared to enter the high tech work force and graduate school." he continued, "I have maintained for a long time that the teaching of a programming language in a hands-on environment, such as what the C Stamp offers, would provide a big incentive to learn the language. This has been borne out by the initial class where the students exhibited significant interest in learning C in order to program the C Stamp boards and make them perform sensing and control tasks."

WELCOME ABOARD - New subscribers to NFFS during the past two weeks include: RICHARD H. VAN DERZEE '48 (father of Richard, Jr. '80, Kris '90 and Jon '91), ANDREW ALLOCCO '67 - HENRY PROPST '67, MATTHEW DEVINS '97