Training for Maritime Jobs : Hawaii Students Can Ship Out to Shape Up

High school student Valentine Pelio took his final exam in the strong winds and rough seas of the Molokai Channel.

“It was hard to see,” Pelio said. “At times, the waves were 10 feet. There was a swell. It was raining.”

But, after a 13-hour crossing between the islands of Maui and Oahu in a 54-foot ketch, Pelio and nine other students passed the field test of the Hawaii Sea Cadet Program.

The program was started in 1981 on the island of Kauai to teach ocean skills to high school students, primarily those who were failing or considered disruptive, to help them land maritime jobs.

Enrollment Widened

It has now spread to 10 Hawaii schools, and 209 students have completed the program. In some schools, all students now may enroll, not just those with academic, truancy or disciplinary problems.

“It gives them a chance to see that there are other things in life than graduating and going to work for a fast-food restaurant or in the sugar cane fields,” Bart Andros, one of the instructors, said.

“We’re an ocean state, so it seemed like a good thing,” according to Capt. Robert L. Alverson, co-founder of the Sea Cadet Program and director of the Pacific Maritime Academy in Honolulu, a vocational training institution. “It’s important to get them out of the classroom to meet the marine interests and see what might await them.”

The program is funded through contributions from maritime organizations and charitable foundations, Alverson said. It has a budget of less than $14,000 a year.

Wants Job on Boat

Pelio hopes that after he graduates from high school next year he can get a job on a sightseeing boat.

Pelio’s friend, Eric Nakamura, took part in the near-weekly scuba diving trips this year and has decided he wants to become a professional diver.

Graduates of the program are issued a Coast Guard Z card, a form of identification required for maritime employment.

In addition, students build up “sea time” needed to get a Coast Guard operators’ license, which requires 360 days of four to six hours or more aboard vessels. Applicants must also be 18 or older and pass a Coast Guard examination. With the license, an operator is entitled to carry passengers for hire.

“We start off with the basic nomenclature, different terms, seamanship, stuff like that,” said Sea Cadet program co-founder James Kitamura on Kauai. “Then, we get to weather conditions, and later we teach them about the business, what kind of opportunities they may have on the island.”

Ride on Cruise Ship

One opportunity is with Lady Ann Cruises, a sightseeing and whale-watching tour-boat business. Students ride aboard the 36-foot, 46-passenger double-decker vessel, helping the crew for no pay.

“After they’ve learned enough that they can be an asset to us, then we start paying them,” Don Moses, Lady Ann’s owner, said. “Most kids from Hawaii are excellent water people. It’s a real natural thing for them.”

One Lady Ann worker was Asa Gasaway, a failing Kapaa High School student who worked for the company for 2 1/2 months after completing sea cadet training. It was the first job he ever had.

Gasaway is back at Kapaa High School and expects to graduate in 1987. With the money he made from Lady Ann, he was able to buy a watch and some school clothes.

“I would love to get my captain’s license when I turn 18,” he said. “It’s a real smart job.”

At Konawaena High School on the island of Hawaii, the program has been broadened so that all high school students may apply. One was Eldora Nazarro, a student in good academic standing.

Learn to Navigate

Nazarro and others learned charting and navigation and sailed on a 24-foot sloop owned by a sailing charter company. After graduation, she got two jobs, both involving sightseeing and snorkeling tours along the Kona Coast of the island.

Nazarro hopes eventually to get her Z card so she can work aboard either the Independence or Oceanic Constitution, two large cruise liners that circle the islands.

Capt. Lawrence Kelly, who commands the Independence and has been going to sea for 40 years, takes Sea Cadet students on tours of the ship.

“They are very enthusiastic,” Kelly said. “They have never been on anything like this before.”

One of the first things students learn in the Maui program is scuba diving.

“The diving, the physical activity, doing something a little scary and to accomplish it is very good for them,” said Sydney Jamison, a teacher assigned to the Maui program. “It motivates them, gives them a focus.”

One shop in Lahaina has offered “scholarships” to train scuba divers.

Firm Helps Students

John Palmer, director of sales for Capt. Nemo’s, a scuba diving and water sports company based in Lahaina, said: “Students can start with our company, go through certification and so forth and obtain their instructor’s certification.”

Jamison and other teachers give the students high school credit for the work they do, either as a science or as social studies.

“Students who have been turned off from the academic type of schooling have found a new interest and are motivated in terms of learning,” said Margaret Oda, Hawaii deputy superintendent of schools.

Alverson agreed. “The most popular subject of all is the chart work, the laying down of course, time, speed, distance, like imaginary voyages from one port to another on a chart,” he said. “It has been the first time they’ve been able to put their hands on something, rather than learn in class.”

Problems Remain

Keeping the students on the right track when they return to regular school still is a problem.

“A couple of kids went into the program and came back and did well only for about three months,” said Cliff Bailey, a high school counselor on Kauai. “They tend to slowly fall back into the group they are comfortable with. We haven’t ironed out the bugs yet.”

Jobs, everyone agrees, are the primary goal.

“Most of them have never had a job, and it’s legitimate money. I think it does wonders for the kids,” Bailey said. “They get more status among their friends, and it plugs them into the work world as opposed to the hang-out world.”