FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2011
Contact:
Mr. Caleb Pifer, Flagship Niagara League
814-452-2744x223
cpifer@flagshipniagara.org
Senior Captain Walter Rybka, Erie Maritime Museum
814-452-2744x203
wrybka@state.pa.us
Flagship Niagara Program Redefined
Erie, PA – The Flagship Niagara will serve as a floating college and high school campus this summer, and engage in three distinct voyages on the Great Lakes. The Flagship Niagara League has developed consortia relationships with colleges and premier preparatory schools around the United States. The schools worked in conjunction with the Flagship Niagara League staff to create customized courses that were specifically crafted for shipboard education. The three programs include a college level history consortium, college level environmental science consortium, and a high school level preparatory school consortium.
These unique programs will provide college students with an unparalleled experiential learning opportunity. Participating college students come from Walsh University, Canton, OH; Edinboro University, Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania; Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania; University of Connecticut, Avery Point, Connecticut; Heidelberg University, Tiffin, OH; Niagara University, Buffalo, NY; State University of New York College at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY; Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania; and Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Participating high school students come from the University School, Cleveland, Ohio; Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C. and Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Students in all three programs will receive course credit from their home institution that will count towards their graduation requirements. “The combination of learning ecology, while living, working, and studying on the Flagship Niagara, will allow students an amazing learning experience,” asserts the lead professor from the environmental science consortium, Dr. Bill Edwards of Niagara University. The programs are the first-of-its-kind, according to Senior Captain Walter Rybka. “We have created a shipboard educational model that does not exist anywhere else in the United States,” he said. Caleb Pifer of the Flagship Niagara League added, “This is just one more example of how the Flagship Niagara is in a league of her own when it comes to formalized shipboard education.”
More about the Flagship Niagara
“Pennsylvania’s Official Flagship and Sailing Ambassador” is one of the nation’s largest tall ships (198’). The ship is a reproduction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s flagship from the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The ship was built in 1988 and is homeported at the Erie Maritime Museum, located in Erie, Pennsylvania.