Coming Back to Chart the Course

How MMA’s Career Fair — and the People Behind It — Are Shaping the Next Generation of Maritime Professionals

Director of Alumni Relations Jamie Coffey

At Maine Maritime Academy, a career isn’t just something students graduate into — it’s something they begin building the moment they arrive on the hill in Castine. And few places on campus make that more tangible than the Alexander Field House on Career Fair day.

Twice a year, something remarkable happens in Castine, Maine. A small coastal town of fewer than 1,500 people becomes a destination for over 100 of the nation’s leading maritime, energy, defense, and industrial companies — all making the journey to meet with the students of Maine Maritime Academy. The Field House transforms into a sea of tables draped in company colors, stacked with branded literature and swag, and lined with professionals eager to talk, recruit, and connect.

Maine Maritime Academy has been hosting Career Fairs on campus for over two decades. What began as a practical effort to connect graduates with employers has grown into one of the Academy’s most powerful expressions of community — a living testament to what MMA stands for and what its graduates go on to achieve.

The most recent spring Career Fair took place on March 26, drawing a full slate of companies to campus. Among them: defense contractors like General Dynamics Electric Boat and Portsmouth
Naval Shipyard; energy giants including NextEra Energy, GE Vernova, Mitsubishi Power Americas, and Siemens Energy; marine operators such as Vane Brothers and Kirby Inland Marine; and companies spanning everything from Great Lakes dredging to food service to waste innovation. The range is a reflection of something important: an MMA education opens more doors than most students initially imagine.

The Team Behind the Magic
None of it happens by accident.

The MMA Career Services and Cooperative Education department is a small but mighty team whose work touches virtually every student who passes through Castine. Director Deborah Harman has been with the department for 13 years, serving twice as interim director before stepping into the role permanently four years ago. Alongside her are Kathy MacArthur, Field Experience Shipping Coordinator, now in her fourth year; Jan Leach, Career Services Coordinator, in her fifth year; and Jeffrey Wheeler, the newest member of the team, who recently joined as Field Experience Shoreside Coordinator.

Harman came to MMA from the medical field — nuclear medicine, radiology, and ultrasound — and found her way to Career Services after a year in the Academy’s safety department. The path was unexpected, but the fit was undeniable. “I enjoy watching the students grow and discover how networking can work for them personally,” she says.

“Students have transferable skills that open more opportunities than they ever thought possible. The fact that they realize ‘I can do that’ is one of my favorite things to hear.”—Deborah Harman, Director of Career Services & Cooperative Education

One Career Fair memory stands out above the rest: “I had a student one year who walked away with five job offers in one day. He was thrilled and didn’t know what to do. A good problem to have.”

Kathy MacArthur brings a unique perspective to her role. Married to an MMA alumnus, and a recent graduate herself with a Master of Science degree, she came to Career Services after managing the Academy’s Bookstore, seeing it as a chance to give back to the community that had shaped her family’s life.

“I love watching students go from wide-eyed freshmen walking through their first Career Fair — that deer-in-the-headlights look — to the confident senior with far more knowledge beginning their final year. We tell the students that they only have one opportunity to make a first impression, and that the reps will remember them.
It’s true.”—Kathy MacArthur, Field Experience Shipping Coordinator

For Jan Leach, the Career Fair is the culmination of months of preparation — and pure joy when the day finally arrives. “It matters that we are here, available, and not ever too busy to talk with a student who comes in,” she says. “It matters that we listen, then help them act.”

Even as the newest member of the team, Jeffrey Wheeler has quickly come to understand what makes the Career Fair special.

“What stands out most is the respect and enthusiasm employers consistently show for the depth and quality of an MMA education. Seeing those conversations turn into cooperative internships and career opportunities is a great reminder of why this work matters so much.”—Jeffrey Wheeler, Field Experience Shoreside Coordinator

Why They Keep Coming Back
Of the companies represented at this spring’s Career Fair, nearly 70 were MMA alumni — graduates who have built careers in industry and now return to Castine year after year to recruit the next generation. It is, in its purest form, the Academy’s mission made visible: students become professionals, professionals become mentors, and the cycle continues.

Jon Carr ’87, Principal Engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat, is one of those alumni. He has made the return trip to Castine more times than he can count, and his reasons are clear.

“Maine Maritime graduates offer a leg up over candidates from other institutions through their familiarity with propulsion plant equipment and operation. This additional knowledge benefits construction engineering support groups where the individual is able to step into a productive role at a faster pace. Made me wish I had a Maine Maritimer doing the work.”—Jon Carr ’87, Principal Engineer, General Dynamics Electric Boat

Paths as Varied as the Sea
Yes, graduates sail as deck officers and chief engineers aboard vessels crossing the globe. But they also work at nuclear and gas-fired power plants, offshore platforms, naval shipyards, dredging operations, inland waterways, marine survey firms, logistics companies, and beyond. Alumni in Marine Science and International Business and Logistics join the traditional maritime degrees, expanding the horizon even further. MMA boasts a 90% graduate placement rate, with a median starting salary of $80,000–$90,000 — figures that reflect the quality of an MMA education and the robust demand for its graduates.

“The career fair is an opportunity for employers to see us in the context of what makes our education at a maritime academy so valuable. Not only do we get to see familiar faces from companies we are interested in working for semester after semester to build that introductory relationship, but they get to see the environment on campus that builds us into professionals”—Margaret Archibald ’26

Full Circle
There is something deeply meaningful about watching an alumnus stand across a table from a current student in the Alexander Field House — each a reflection of the other, separated only by time. The alumnus remembers the nerves, the ambition, the uncertainty, and the way MMA shaped them into someone who could walk into a room and belong there. Now they return. Not because they have to, but because they want to.

“I want all of our students to succeed in whatever they do,” says Jan Leach. “I also want them to know that even after they graduate, we are still here for them. My door is always open. I want them to know that they have so many opportunities when they leave here and that they should not give up on their dreams.”

That sentiment — generous, steadfast, forward-looking — is the spirit of the MMA Career Fair, and the spirit of the institution as a whole.

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