Jamaica will have a female marine engineer onboard a ship in the Carnival Cruise Line for the first time in history when Seychelle Bailey, who comes from Linstead St./ Catherine and is in her last year at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), sets sail in August 2019. According to Bailey, she views her posting as “an opportunity of a lifetime” and intends to represent CMU in the best way possible as she gains additional competence in her chosen profession. She went on to say that she has always wanted to work on a passenger vessel. Being selected to sail on the Carnival Line ship was “like a dream come true,” she said.

Bailey spoke about her experiences at CMU and said she had always wanted to pursue a non-traditional career. This is what brought her to seek her goals at sea. It was not a difficult choice for her, she said, remembering that she had a career evaluation while at Queen’s School and found that her interests were aligned to the field of engineering. As a result of the evaluation, Bailey did more research on careers in engineering and discovered the field of marine engineering, a filed dominated by males. Undaunted, she found the program at CMU. She did note, however, that there were reservations about this career path after she read an article describing the chiefly male workforce on this career path. After discussing the matter with her father and other members of her family, as well as staff at CMU, she continued to pursue this dream.

Commenting on her new role with Carnival Cruise Lines, Bailey said she just wants to “go out there and do my best” so that in a year the line will decide to take on more cadets, particularly women. She also wants everyone to know that to participate in the CMU program, “you have to want it” and “you have to be disciplined.” It isn’t easy, she said, and participants have to have a passion for the program in order to succeed.

Photo Source: Nautical Institute