Adopt-a-Ship’s First Female CO Visits School

The Adopt-a-Ship (AAS) Project’s first female Chief Officer (CO), Jasmin Labarda of TechnipFMC, visited Bayanan Elementary School-Main (BESM) in Muntinlupa City last November 29, 2017.

BESM Teacher Ms. Cristina Bonifacio’s four Grade 5 Social Studies classes with a total of 191 pupils have adopted CO Labarda’s Ship, Deep Blue, through AAS.

The AAS Project aims to introduce shipping and its benefits to Grades 4-6 pupils through weekly email exchanges between Ship Officers and partner-teachers.

The teachers integrate shipping-related concepts in their weekly lessons for Subjects such as Math, Science, English, Social Studies and Filipino. The pupils keep track of their adopted ship’s movements and location on a big world map.

For SY 2017-2018, AAS have been implemented for ten weeks by 20 teachers in four public elementary schools, including BESM, in Muntinlupa. The teachers’ cumulative 97 classes with 4,540 students have fun learning through AAS, and hopefully would be inspired to pursue a maritime career.

PTC-CSJ Foundation manages AAS in partnership with IMO, InterManager, PTC and five shipping companies – Seaspan, Grindrod, Hyroussa, Exmar and TechnipFMC – that have assigned a total of 19 ships to the Project for the current School Year.