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Older students could have a clearer path into maritime careers, thanks to a new law that expands financial aid at academies.
The CADETS Act expands financial aid eligibility beyond the previous age cut-off of 25 for students at the nation’s six maritime academies, including the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City.
“This is of critical need for us, both in the civilian world and for the military,” said bill sponsor and Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters at a news conference Tuesday. “We have a shortage right now of mariners, on the lakes as well as on the seas.”
Under the program, cadets must be under 41 years old, and agree to serve in the U.S. Navy Reserve and the Merchant Marine after graduating.
Many students at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City are non-traditional – for instance, they’re veterans, they don’t have a standard high school diploma or they took time off before college.
And getting a degree at the academy can be expensive; officials with the Great Lakes Maritime Academy say that finances are the number one reason cadets leave the program.
“You need to buy uniforms, you need to go to sea,” said Academy Superintendent Gerard Achenbach. “So even the sea projects, if you can get a scholarship, that means the summers you can't work. You know, it's really a 42 month program.”
Achenbach said this will help make the academy more affordable to Michigan residents, and help diversify the program by attracting new students and help existing ones, like one cadet who joined a midshipman’s program.
“He was just doing [it] on his own without the stipend,” Achenbach said. “He's in his early 30s. And he will now be eligible for $32,000 for his last year.”
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