Military academies draw from St. Joseph High School

OGDEN — St. Joseph High School in Ogden is proud to announce that three senior St. Joseph High School students have received appointments to the United States Naval Academy located in Annapolis, Maryland. To receive an appointment in itself is a feat, but the fact that three students have been so honored is amazing for a school with a graduating class of less than 50 students. Kristin Hope, Jake Ries, and Ryan Gilbert recently received appointments to the United States Naval Academy. The four-year Naval Academy experience is worth approximately $300,000.

In addition, Kristin received a Navy ROTC scholarship worth up to $150,000 for use at Westminster College. Kristin received her pilot’s license. She would like to study aeronautics and become a Navy fighter pilot. She commented, "I think it would be exciting to design a plane, and then fly it."

Jake Ries also received a Navy ROTC scholarship plus appointments from three academies – the United States Naval Academy, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. He has not yet chosen which academy to attend, but does plan on studying mechanical, electrical, or nuclear engineering.

Ryan’s first choice is the United States Naval Academy. He also received a Navy ROTC scholarship to attend Boston College. Ryan plans to study liberal arts and political science. When he attended a summer session at the Naval Academy, he met an English professor who had just returned from Iraq. Ryan said, "This showed me that you can study things other than engineering at the Academy."

The process to receive an appointment begins with the quest for a congressional nomination to become an official candidate. Interested students must have good GPAs, high ACT or SAT scores, be active in school leadership and extracurricular activities, do community service, pass fitness tests and medical screening, and go through countless interviews with congressional and academy representatives. Just to receive a nomination is a honor – out of 14,000 official candidates only 4,300 will receive an official nomination, while a mere 1,400 will receive appointments nationwide. As a comparison, in 2005 only six Utah students across the state received appointments to the United States Naval Academy.