Northfield Bank Foundation
Supports Career Awareness in the Local Maritime Industry
Student art work
Throughout the spring of 2024 the Noble Maritime Collection partnered with PS 31 in New Brighton with the goal of introducing second through fifth-graders to the local maritime industry. The museum is grateful to Northfield Bank Foundation for the opportunity to provide arts education and teach students about careers on the water and on the shore.
The museum’s Director of Programs Dawn Daniels commenced the program by distributing the museum’s workbook, Maritime Careers of New York Harbor, to participating students in their classrooms. Throughout six fun and engaging sessions, the classes studied the workbooks by reading sections, discussing photographs, and talking about their future career goals. They explored ways to apply job ideas that they already had in mind, such as mechanic, computer technician, and construction worker, to opportunities available in the local maritime industry. They learned about training resources such as the Sea Scouts, Council on Port Performance, Urban Assembly High Schools, and apprenticeship programs that help steer students towards trades that are plentiful on Staten Island’s waterfront.
Patrick Raftery engages with students after a performance.
Music historian and teaching artist, Bob Wright, sings sea shanties with students.
The program included visual and performing arts education. After the sessions about the maritime industry were complete, Ms. Daniels led art projects, such as printmaking and pop-up card making, which depicted scenes of New York Harbor. Subsequently, musicians Bob Wright and Patrick Raftery taught songs about working at sea, and the students sang along with the shanties. In addition to being a musician and retired teacher, Mr. Wright was a commercial diver. He performed for the students with his guitar and banjo, teaching them stories about notable events and people in New York Harbor’s history, and answering questions about working underwater surrounded by sharks and jellyfish.
The students visited the Atlantic Salt Company shipyard, an importer of road salt, on the waterfront overlooking New York Harbor. The terminal manager, Brian DeForest, gave the students, along with their teachers and families, a tour of the facilities, explained the different jobs that workers do there, and staged a face-off between front-end loader and excavator vehicles. The trip had a profound impact on the students, with many expressing interest in future maritime careers.
Students visiting Atlantic Salt, Co.
The residency partnership was made possible, in part, by a generous grant from Northfield Bank Foundation.
