When it was first created, the SSC was tasked with organizing and running the Student Congress, held during SNAME Maritime Technology Conference and Expo (a.k.a. SMTC&E or the SNAME Annual Meeting). The Student Congress quickly became a great success, and caused the SSC to expand the student activities offered at the SMTC&E. The SSC now oversees an entire SNAME Annual Meeting Student Program. The SSC realizes that an annual Student Program is not enough to foster active student participation. As such, we have expanded our present and future plans to include:
• Creating an open means of communications with Student Sections and student members
• Keeping students informed of SNAME news and events – both locally and nationally
• Giving full support to current Student Sections, and encouraging the creation of new Student Sections
• Organizing new student programs and services to enhance student membership
• Continuing to represent student interests at all levels of SNAME
In addition, the 2012 goals are as follows:
The SSC is committed to achieving various goals in 2012, especially in regards to: mentoring and shadowing programs between both Students members and Society members and Student Members and upcoming University Students, i.e. High School Students, with an interest in the industry; a Student Representative on the T&R Steering Committee and Student representatives on the T&R Panels; expanding communication efforts through the various websites (SNAME, SSC and Young Professionals websites) and eNewsLetters (SNAME, SSC and Technical and Topical); and outreach efforts both between the SNAME Students and Young Professionals and the SNAME Student Sections and the Parent Sections. Heavy focus will be placed on the retention of graduating seniors and the creation of more “marketing/promotional” presence , with such materials as a “5 Reasons to Belong to SNAME as a Student Member” brochure and information on the SSC website, SSC eNewsLetter and recruiting meetings at the Student Sections, alongside participation at the local Section and National levels.
In addition, the SSC would also like to implement a Student Shadowing Program, which will enable students to shadow a mentor in the industry for a select amount of time (day – week) during the school’s break.