Decarbonization session at the NAMEPA Conference

On October 29, 2019, my Vessel Operations class went to Pier 40 to go on a boat called Hornblower for a professional conference held by The North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA). Before the event, I wasn’t excited about this trip, mostly because I had no idea what the conference was about or what decarbonization was. About a day or two before the conference I looked up what I might need to know to be able to understand the presentations that were going to be shared and to my surprise, I found the topic quite fascinating. While looking up decarbonization I found out what it means to remove carbon from combustion chambers on an engine, making the environment a lot cleaner. On the day of the meeting, I made sure to write down the notes I found and the ideas I had before the meeting officially started. That day the majority of my class were dressed to impress. I felt very mature and professional. Listening to the presenters’ ideas on how to reduce carbon levels made me thankful that I did some research because a lot of my written down notes were brought into the conversation. After the first part of the conference, we had a break and we were assigned by our teacher, Aaron, to talk to members of the meeting and get to know about what they do along with collect their business cards. I interactions with a salesman named Philip and a marketing organizer named Michele who were interested in the school and our programs. I’m hoping to connect them with our CTE classes to find out more about their line of work. Probably the most exciting connection was with United States Coast Guard Rear Admiral Richard Timme, who serves as the Assistant Commandant for Prevention and Policy. It was an honor to speak with the admiral of the Coast Guard, who was down to earth . Talking to him was a good experience. We talked mostly about NY Harbor School and certain aspects of his job as admiral. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and getting to be apart of something so mature. I definitely will be looking forward to the next conference.

~ Avarie Binns