SUNY Maritime College Annual Report 2018-2019

accomplishments thus far, the highlight of her time at Maritime College was an offer to sail for 12 weeks during summer 2019 aboard the Celebrity Equinox, a 122,000- ton, 1041-foot cruise ship that is part of the Celebrity Cruises fleet of ships. This made Cadet Steele the first woman from Maritime College to work on a cruise ship with the first American woman to captain a cruise ship. During her first six weeks on the Celebrity Equinox (pictured right), Cadet Steele was on dry dock taking part in maintenance and Safety of Life at Sea related tasks

for the ship’s 22 lifeboats. For the last six weeks, she was assigned to watch duty and heavily involved in activities of the Eastern and Western Caribbean passenger cruises. Within a few weeks of working with an officer on the ship’s Standard Operating Procedures, Cadet Steele was performing at a level much higher than expected of a cadet. Describing her experience as “life- changing,” she stated, “Working on that bridge under a variety of environments taught me how to keep stress from affecting my performance. And working alongside people from so many different countries helped me understand that I

should think before I talk. It made me more sensitive to what and how I say things. Now I think about that every single day.”

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