JULY 31, 2013 — Wärtsilä hosted State University of New York Maritime College cadets, along with cadets from Maine and Texas Maritime Academies, when the SUNY Maritime training ship, Empire State VI, visited Trieste, Italy, in mid July as part of the 2013 Summer Sea Term.

On the ship's arrival in Trieste harbor, leaders from Wärtsilä  welcomed a group of close to 600, including cadets, faculty, crew and SUNY Maritime College President, RADM Wendi B. Carpenter, USN (Ret.).

Wärtsilä and SUNY Maritime have been working together since 2011 when Wärtsilä donated a state-of-the-art diesel engine to the College, creating a diesel engine lab for engineering students.

Once the ship had docked in Trieste, Admiral Carpenter joined 100 Engineering Major Cadets, as well as Dr. Richard Burke, SUNY Maritime's Chairman of the Engineering Department, for a four-hour guided tour of the Wärtsilä multi product factory.  

During the visit, the students also had the opportunity to meet with several Wärtsilä leaders.  The following day, Wärtsilä managers arranged a meeting between Maritime College President, Admiral Carpenter and the College's Engineering Chairman, Dr. Richard Burke, with fellow educators at the University of Trieste.

"Our visit in Trieste and tour of the Wärtsilä manufacturing facility was a unique opportunity for our students and faculty to experience, first-hand, the numerous elements involved in the production of a Wärtsilä engine. Equally as important, they saw the inner workings of a multi-national company with enormous impact,"  said Admiral Carpenter.
 
Before the ship departed for Malta, SUNY Maritime hosted a celebratory on-board reception. The Empire State VI will return to the SUNY Maritime College campus on August 9 and the start of another new academic year will begin several weeks later.