HII Hosts Apprentice School Graduation (USA)

Huntington Ingalls Industries hosted commencement exercises Saturday for the company’s Apprentice School located at Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). The graduation, held at the Liberty Baptist Church Worship Center in Hampton, celebrated the achievements of 161 apprentices representing 26 trades.

“No matter what trade you are in, as an apprentice graduate, you are among an elite group of shipbuilders,” NNS President Matt Mulherin told the 2011 graduating class as its keynote speaker. “That’s why your ideas are so critical. … As you embark on this new journey, I can tell you from experience that you will encounter challenges and overcome obstacles. More significantly, you will come to experience a pride that very few understand. Knowing the ships that you helped to build will ensure peace in unknown waters will preserve our freedom and will protect our military instills a pride that no one can take away from you. There are truly no limits to what you can do and where you can go with this company.”

Seventy apprentices completed an optional, advanced program and graduated with academic honors, representing the highest participation rate in the last five years. Athletic awards were presented to 13 apprentices, and 12 apprentices completed their required academics with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.

Adam Horak received the Homer L. Ferguson Award for earning the highest grade point average in combined required academics and crafts. In his speech to his classmates, Horak quoted President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Horak added, “And this is what we’ve done while getting to this graduation. We’ve paid the price, met the burdens and borne the hardships. We are the best. We make the best. We serve the best. Fellow graduates, we are not the leaders of tomorrow, we are the Newport News Shipbuilding leaders of today—leading our company to its full potential and bringing maximum value to our customer, our employer and our shareholders.”

More than 100 faculty and staff teach 25 different programs and more than 75 course offerings at The Apprentice School, which provides high-quality, comprehensive four- and five-year programs for students interested in shipbuilding careers. Since 1919, the programs have produced more than 9,600 graduates in support of the operational needs of the company. An apprenticeship is a formal training program that allows students to receive instruction and experience—both theoretical and practical—in the various aspects of a skilled trade.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding.

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, February 7, 2012; Image: huntingtoningalls