IN THIS ISSUE – August 2022

• SCI—Covering the August Conferences
• Two Key Features to be Added to Center for Maritime Education Client Service Experience
• Meaningful Work: Tulane Law Student Ashleigh Higgs' Summer Center for Mariner Advocacy Internship
• On this Date: From the SCI Archives

Photo: Chaplain James Kollin's visit to the CMA CGM La Traviata in Port Newark.

The World Depends on Mariners.

Mariners Depend on SCI.

And SCI Depends on You.

SCI – Covering the August Conferences

One of SCI’s priorities is to maintain an active presence within the maritime community, raising visibility within the industry of the personal support, education, and legal advocacy services we offer to river mariners and seafarers. To that end, conference attendance is important and this August, SCI has attended three conferences:

• Senior Chaplain Thomas Rhoades, Chaplain Associate Howard “Doc” Whitaker, and Center of Mariner Advocacy (CMA) Director Phil Schifflin were part of a panel discussion on Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) at the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) conference in New Orleans (August 3-5).

• SCI Executive Director Mark Nestlehutt, Chaplain James Kollin, and CMA Director Phil Schifflin —along with representatives from our sister mariner welfare organizations—attended the North American Maritime Ministry Association conference (NAMMA) in Baltimore (August 9-11).

• CMA Director Phil Schifflin and Chaplain David Shirk attended the American Waterways Operators (AWO) Summer Safety meeting in Chicago (August 17-18).

Above: Center for Mariner Advocacy Director Phil Schifflin, SCI Executive Director Mark Nestlehutt, and SCI Chaplain James Kollin attend the NAMMA Conference in Baltimore, Maryland (8/9-11). • Below: SCI Senior Chaplain Thomas Rhoades and Chaplain Associate Howard "Doc" Whitaker participated on a CISM panel discussion at the GICA conference in New Orleans, Louisiana (8/3-5). (Photo by Frank McCormack.) 

The Knit Before Christmas

SCI's magazine for our Christmas at Sea fiber-artist community is in the mail! But you can also check out the summer 2022 issue online. Click here to read. You can download the PDF here.

Two Key Features to be Added to CME Client Service Experience

SCI's Center for Maritime Education is adding two key features to their client service experience in September: registration automation and blended learning modules.

Registration automation will allow CME clients to sync up their HR databases with SCI, streamlining service/course re-enrollment. Providing clients the option of automation, reduces the labor and potential for error that comes with additional data input on the user end. Additionally, syncing with our client's HR department gives us the potential to update our enrollment database automatically whenever clients experience personnel changes and promotions.

Blended learning, launching in September, offers our CME clients the option of augmenting the simulator training they receive at our CME centers in Paducah, KY, or Houston, TX, with a variety of specific e-learning courses dedicated to the Rules of the Road– Legal Obligations Training. These blended learning courses are asynchronous and can be accessed by mariners anytime and anywhere they have a cell phone signal. As CME values proficiency, each module provides testing so mariners can reinforce concepts they may have missed before they are permitted to move on.

For more information about these features or any of our training at CME, contact cme@seamenschurch.org or call 973.589.5828.

Meaningful Work: Tulane Law Student Ashleigh Higgs' Summer CMA Internship

Above: Tulane/SCI Summer Intern Ashleigh Higgs with CMA Director Philip C. Schifflin, Jr., Esq. (Photo: Arthur Yves).

For 27 years, SCI's Center for Mariner Advocacy has welcomed students from Tulane University School of Law to work as interns during their 1L summer. This summer, CMA welcomed Ashleigh Higgs to the longstanding program, where she was able to engage with and learn from the meaningful work that CMA does. Here are a few of the projects in which Ashleigh participated: 

• A long-term research project about the repatriation rights of U.S. mariners upon the completion of their contract. In light of the ongoing labor crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, Ashleigh's research will provide CMA with more tools to assist mariners forced to overstay their contracts. 

• Along with CMA Director Phil Schifflin, Ashleigh connected with Ally Cedeno, the Founder and CEO of Women Offshore. Through this introduction, Ashleigh has begun research projects about enforcement and penalties for sexual assault/sexual harassment cases on ships and increased representation of women in maritime. 

• Assisted CMA with two cases in Spanish, translating emails, newspaper articles from 1973, medical reports, and communications with mariners to understand the cases and problem-solve solutions. 

• Visited New York City, where Ashleigh met with attorneys from two large law firms, the Liberian Ship Registry, SCI Chaplains at the International Seafarers' Center, seafarers at Port Newark (while on ship visits), and U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York Port State Control Division.  

• Helped to coordinate the organization and collaboration of a Mariner Wellness Steering Committee; work that extends from the Paducah roundtable in July 2021, where leaders and experts in the maritime field met to discuss the wellness issues mariners face, and how to best resolve them. 

Ashleigh plans to return to Tulane Law for the Fall 2022 semester, where she will act as a junior member of the Maritime Law Journal, Vice President of the Maritime Law Society, and, most importantly, a dedicated 2L law student. She passes along her thanks to Douglas Stevenson, CMA Director Emeritus, and to all of the wonderful staff at the Seamen's Church Institute who were welcoming and helpful in her search for more information about maritime law. She would especially like to thank Phil Schifflin for his gracious mentorship and guidance during her time as an intern. For the Seamen's Church Institute, it was a pleasure having Ashleigh aboard; we are grateful for her contributions and wish her well.

Above: Recently, Ashleigh joined SCI Chaplain Tom Rhoades for a long ride aboard Marquette's MV Dennis Fromenthal. Pictured here, Ashleigh joined the crew in the wheelhouse during the watch change for the daily safety meeting. 

From the SCI Archives

ON THIS DATE...

Sixty years ago, The Lookout reported on a two-week exhibit by the New York Ship Craft club with this photo of visiting American seafarer John Forsythe and German seafarer Klaus Kreuger admiring one of the models. SCI's legendary ship model collection was distributed elsewhere as vessel turn-around times reduced and SCI's operations moved to Newark and the Inland waterways, but we retain a few choice models in our collection. Read The Lookout from July/August 1962.

Click here to learn more 

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