American Caribbean Maritime Foundation

The acmf, just after a few short years, has transformed the lives of dozens of aspiring Caribbean seafarers and Maritime professionals. In 2023, the acmf quadrupled the number of scholarship recipients and grantees. In 2018, it was thirteen (13) and grew to one hundred eighty- nine (189) in 2023. We completed the development of the first jobs board exclusively for Caribbean Maritime graduates to assist with job placement and forged our fifth academic partnership with atlantic alliance off-shore Maritime institute. Our work with major shipping companies serving the Caribbean resulted in unique partnerships including expanding our cruise partnerships to royal Caribbean, norwegian cruise line, msc, and carnival. Women continue to be under-represented at senior levels in the Maritime field and we have focused on ensuring that they receive the kind of support they need to get access to Maritime academic training. They continue to be a focus of our scholarship and grant awards-wherein 50% of our scholarships are awarded to them. We capped off 2023 with the annual anchor awards in november 2023 honoring the seminal Maritime training institute in the Caribbean, the Caribbean Maritime university, based in kingston, jamaica. The event brought together top brass of the cruise and cargo shipping industry, several vice presidents, and Maritime professionals from across the caribbeans and united states. The acmf is succeeding in its mission to transform lives of the Caribbean youth through Maritime education and development. Up until 2023, we awarded 189 scholarships and grants to students from jamaica, bahamas, grenada, st. vincent and the grenadines, trinidad and tobago, guyana, and dominican republic. The average gpa of our scholars is 3.2; and two of our scholars were honored as valedictorians. We have also funded sea time for several students, and created a unique jobs board platform that is free to use to our graduates. The platform has over 200 cadets registered, and several cruise and cargo companies are using the platform. The acmf hosted its sixth anchor awards honoring the Caribbean Maritime university, with guyana's first lady arya ali serving as patron and keynote speaker. The acmf has signed on the following strategic partners: women in Maritime Caribbean (wimac), Caribbean shipping association, and the shipping association of barbados.