7 nominated to service academies

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Seven area Western Pennsylvania high school students have been nominated to attend U.S. military academies by U.S. Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-3rd.

“The military academies have extremely high standards that require social, leadership, and athletic abilities with strong academic backgrounds,” English said. “The students that I am nominating exemplify the top-notch, well-rounded candidates the academies admit.”

The students applied for nominations from English in October and were interviewed by a selection committee, which made recommendations to the congressman for final nominations.

Once nominated by English, the academies will make the final selections and offer appointments to students. All of the military academies, except for the Coast Guard Academy, require students to receive nominations from their congressmen, senators or the president before they will be considered for an appointment.

Local students nominated by English are:

The United States Naval Academy: Rebekah Blank of Hermitage, Jordan Foley of Butler, Gary Hlusko of Fredonia, Kevin Hoffman of Grove City and Andrew Schnur of Butler.

The United States Air Force Academy: Luke Dugger of Evans City and Paul Ochs of Jamestown.