Monday, December 19, 2011
NILES
Northeast Ohioans should take great pride in the dedication and commitment of outstanding students who have sought and received nominations for the military service and merchant-marine academies, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, of Niles.
“Each year, I am given the honor of nominating some of the best and brightest students from the 17th District to our United States military academies,” Ryan said.
The occasion was a Sunday gathering of the nominees and their parents, which the congressman attended, at McMenamy’s Restaurant and Banquet Center.
“I would love more than anything to serve my country,” said Rachael Oravetz of Lordstown, an applicant for the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Oravetz, who volunteers her time in the emergency department at St. Joseph Health Center in Warren, said she is interested in the medical field and is considering eventually becoming a medical doctor.
“I love helping people. I want to make a great contribution to society,” Oravetz said.
Her father and an uncle served in the Army and another uncle served in the Air Force.
Oravetz urged other students interested in the Air Force Academy to start preparing in junior high school to take, and excel in, the college-preparatory math and science courses they’ll need in high school.
Joseph Angelo of Warren said he was motivated to apply to the Air Force Academy by “the chance to serve my country and work with high-end technology.” He said his interests include “anything dealing with science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Angelo’s great-grandfather was a Navy Seabee in the Pacific during World War II. An uncle served in the Army during the post-World War II occupation of Japan.
“Because of defense cuts, it’s the smallest class entering the Air Force Academy,” in its history, totaling about 1,050 students, said his mother, Joy Angelo. “He’s a strong candidate, and we’re cautiously optimistic,” she said of her son, who, like many of the other nominees, is an honor-roll student.
“I wanted to serve my country, and it was a matter of how,” said Joshua Murphy of Brookfield, a West Point applicant, who maintains a 4.0 grade-point average at Brookfield High School.
“West Point or any service academy, for that matter, is really a platform to really grow your ideals as far as leadership, responsibility and self-accountability,” he added. “The character-building is what it’s all about to take with me in my professional career,” he added.
“Even when I go into my civilian career, in which I intend to pursue law, at least I will have the foundations of a service academy to take with me,” he said.
West Point is highly selective. Of 12,000 to 13,000 applicants each year, only 900 to 1,000 are admitted, Murphy said.
Murphy’s uncle, Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington, served in the Army as a combat military policeman during the Korean War. Another uncle served in the Army during the Vietnam War.
Cole Bury of Austintown said he was motivated to apply to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., by “a desire to have a top-notch education and also to serve my country in one of the best ways possible.”
In 2009, only 1,000 of about 12,000 applicants to enter the Naval Academy were admitted, he recalled.
Bury’s father was a Marine and his uncles served in the Air Force. Also, his grandfather served in the Army and his grandmother served in the Navy.
“This year, I am proud to recommend 12 young men and women who have excelled, both academically and personally, as leaders in their communities,” the congressman said.
Each nominee completed an application and an interview with the 17th District nomination committee.
“If selected, these young people would begin a journey that would test them physically and mentally and mold them into our nation’s leaders of the future,” Ryan said.
“I’m proud to have the honor to nominate these young men and women to our United States military academies, and I know they will make our country proud,” Ryan concluded.