Port Briefs: POLB Awards College Scholarships and POLB Awarded $2.72 Million Security Grant

Port Awards $220,000 in College Scholarships

LONG BEACH — The Port of Long Beach Aug. 3 announced $219,500 in scholarships for 154 local college and high school students to assist in their pursuit of higher education degrees in port-related fields from engineering to international business.

The students receiving the scholarships were recognized at the port’s “Celebrating Education” event on Aug. 2. The event also honored the 2023 class of summer high school interns, the first class after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Celebrating Education event brings together students, educators, public officials and business leaders to highlight the port’s education outreach programs and recognize the accomplishments of students involved. 

This year’s scholarships went to students from local high schools, Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach. This fiscal year’s budget for scholarships was $250,000, up from the previous year’s $200,000.

Port of Long Beach Awarded $2.72 Million Security Grant

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $2.72 million grant aimed at enhancing security at the Port of Long Beach to ensure the safe and efficient movement of cargo in the wake of an emergency.

As a recipient of the agency’s Port Security Grant Program, the Port of Long Beach will use the funding to modernize its core security network, strengthen existing security systems and enhance resiliency and business continuity in the event of a disaster.

Officials welcomed the grant announcement as an opportunity to improve the port’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from large-scale emergencies.

The Port Security Grant Program awards funding to state, local and private-sector agencies for security projects that protect port infrastructure from terrorism, improve maritime security risk management and strengthen security mitigation protocols.

Specifically, the $2.72 million grant awarded to the Port of Long Beach will be divided across four projects:

• Maintenance for closed-circuit television and wireless security systems, including more than 750 cameras keeping watch across the port.
• Support for existing security access control systems and information-sharing platforms connecting commercial agencies and law enforcement agencies at the federal, state and local levels.
• Expansion of a cloud-based resiliency network in the event of terrorism, a cybersecurity attack, a natural disaster or other emergency outages.
• Modernization of the port’s core security network to protect the integrity of the systems monitored by its security headquarters, the joint command and control center.