Introduction to America

We had the opportunity to welcome the students from Shanghai Maritime University and played a leading role in their acclimation both to Massachusetts Maritime Academy and to the United States. We spent the days before the SMU students’ arrival getting their temporary rooms prepared with bedding, towels, and ensuring the overall cleanliness of the entire rooms. Commander Page set up a series of meetings for all of the transfer students involved in the Spring Semester Orientation Program (SSOP) and the Chinese Exchange students were to follow a comparable schedule. We set up additional meetings with the Business Office to create savings accounts, a meeting with Health Services to provide an overview of the services provided, and spent all of our free time doing our best to get the exchange students acclimated to America and, most importantly, the time difference. They seemed to be handling all of the excitement well and at times even seemed to be better rested than the two of us.

They arrived on Wednesday evening exhausted after their 19-hour flight from Shanghai to Japan to Minneapolis to Boston. Their first meal in the United States, per their suggestion, was McDonalds before they made their way to MMA. We greeted them at CIC and whisked them up to their rooms on the 04 deck of First Company. Following a brief meeting with LT Deegan, Trustee Paul Kelly, and Professor Qi Chen, we gave the exchange students a brief tour of the deck and sent them to their rooms for the evening. This is an exciting experience and look forward to documenting the journey.

2/c Mike Doren and 2/c Jon Foley are cadet hosts for the SMU students at MMA and will be documenting their semester experience.