Boundless Opportunity

Partnerships Chart a Path to Careers in Trade and Transportation  

International trade routes are woven throughout Southern California, especially in the Long Beach area. Rumbling freight trains, long lines of big rigs and the sight of cargo ships are parts of everyday life.      

That is why the Center for International Trade & Transportation (CITT) at Cal State Long Beach supports the Port of Long Beach Academy of Global Logistics at Cabrillo High School. Formed via a partnership between CITT, the Port and the Long Beach Unified School District, the Academy offers youths like Beach student Adriana Sosa-Reyes an insider’s view of trade.     

“Growing up, I really didn’t think about it much. I knew that when we would travel on the freeway, there would be all these trucks,” said Sosa-Reyes, who is majoring in accounting. “It’s very informative to learn more about what the port does .... It’s a very cool experience to learn how business works.”   

A June 2023 Mineta Transportation Institute paper reports that, as of its writing, some 800 Cabrillo students had gone through the Academy since its 2016 founding.  

“When you talk to students who are in the program, they see opportunities that they may not have seen before,” said Tom O’Brien, associate dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Education.  

CITT, part of the College of Professional and Continuing Education, supports the program by providing teacher training, help with lessons and liaising with industry professionals.  CITT is also homes to METRANS Transportation Consortium, a U.S. Department of Transportation-designated university transportation center and a partnership between the University of Southern California and CSULB. Together, both universities offer a range of educational options that address the transportation challenges of regions such as that of Southern California.    

Such partnerships ensure that students enjoy a full range of enriching learning opportunities during their time at The Beach — and in the case of the Academy, even before they begin their college career.   

With more than 50,000 trade-connected jobs performed within Long Beach, Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero said the port does its part to ensure that area students can explore career opportunities in goods movement and international trade.  

“The team at CITT has provided crucial guidance for this innovative program, which is designed to prepare students for success in college and their careers, which we hope will be in the goods movement industry,” he said.   

The Academy also shows Cabrillo students, many of whom end up attending CSULB,  the way to opportunities in logistics, as well as how math and science are relevant to business. This can motivate them to persist through college-level coursework and researchers also reported the Academy cultivates problem-solving, critical thinking and communication skills.   

Academy students can tour Long Beach’s harbor, meet professionals and play the roles of business executives during a 12th-grade capstone project. These experiences can help them envision their futures.      

“It really set me up to learn how to communicate with others well and how to get out of my comfort zone and rely on other people,” said Sosa-Reyes, who participated in the Academy throughout her 2019-23 enrollment at Cabrillo.