Two local seniors appointed to West Point

By Justin Wier

jwier@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Austintown Fitch High School senior Brandon Akuszewski woke up in his room March 11 when he heard his mom slam the door and run up the stairs.

“I hear, ‘Brandon, get up!’” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘What did I do? I had to have done something.’”

When he opened the door, his mom had a large envelope emblazoned with the logo for West Point Military Academy. Akuszewksi said it took him about 10 minutes to work up the courage to open it. His mother sat on his bedroom floor with her back against the wall and her hands over her face. He started reading a letter in the package, and when he reached the word “congratulations,” he put it down.

“My mom said, ‘Tell me. No, don’t tell me. No, tell me. I want to know,’” he said. “I said, ‘I got accepted,’ and we just lost it, honestly.”

Two students from Mahoning County have been appointed to West Point this year, Akuszewski and Marissa Davis at Valley Christian School.

Attending West Point has long been a dream of Akuszewski’s. Lesley Busico, his high-school guidance counselor, remembers her first meeting with Akuszewski as a freshman. “The first thing Brandon said to me was, ‘I want to go to West Point,’” she said.

He said he first heard about West Point in sixth grade, and a year or two later, it started to become a real goal.

“[West Point] really was the culmination of everything that appealed to me and everything I decided that I wanted for myself in life,” he said. “Just to achieve physical and mental excellence all while serving my country ... it’s everything.”

He said he’s always felt a need to give back what was given to him by virtue of being born in America.

In addition to maintaining strong grades, preparing himself for West Point required volunteering, participating in athletics and going through rigorous physical exams. He plans on going into law if he doesn’t make a career out of the military – West Point cadets are required to spend five years on active duty after graduation.

Akuszewski still hasn’t fully acknowledged that his dream has come true.

“It may set in when I say goodbye to my family and go off to basic” training, he said. “It might kick in sooner than that, but it’s still kind of disbelief right now.”

In addition to her appointment to West Point, Davis is also her class valedictorian at Valley Christian. Her academic success led West Point to reach out to her when she was in ninth grade – she got an email asking her to consider the school – and after a campus visit, it became an ambition.

“I realized [West Point cadets are] the kind of people I want to be around,” she said. “I could see myself thriving there.”

Before that, she hadn’t considered an academy, but the military was still on her mind. She considered participating in a ROTC program when she got to college.

“I always want to give back, and to me, [military service is] the best way of giving back,” she said.

She got the news of her appointment from her guidance counselor who called her. Davis said she cried.

“It was very emotional because you’ve put in all this hard work, and now you’re finally getting rewarded for it,” she said. “Now everyone finally sees it.”

Dan Kidd, academic dean at Valley Christian, said Davis can’t help but be a leader, and she embodies the school’s slogan of, “Love more. Expect more. Be more.”

“This is the perfect example of a student going on and being more,” he said. “She’s really done a great job of being an example to other students.”

Davis has no plans to slow down. She plans to study sociology at West Point and wants to enter politics at some point.

“I just have to stay focused and keep my eyes on the prize,” she said. “I can’t get distracted.”