The quality of the education at the Air Force Academy really is exceptional. Cadets will come here and get a high quality education in any range of majors. They're gonna do that alongside with their military training.
The Academy is in the middle of Colorado Springs, so it's a beautiful state. You can go skiing, you can go snowboarding, you can go mountain biking. There's so many different things for you to do here. The Air Force Academy is really big on diversity and inclusion.
Really understanding a bunch of ethnic and diverse backgrounds and how this can attribute to a team who's working towards a higher purpose. Every cadet is part of a squadron. That is one of your built-in communities. They're pretty tight, but there are also other clubs and opportunities whether it's research or sports, medicine, or anything in between.
People here are very athletic. I think that's one of the very common themes. Overall we're all different people but that physical requirement kind of unites us all.
My friends who don't go to the Academy are jealous of me because they didn't get to jump out of a plane their freshman year. It was pretty exciting coming to the Academy because it is Division I. So you compete with the best schools in the nation and so you have that competition. I'm here, I'm not paying any tuition, and I'm actually getting paid to be here. So I have a lot of financial freedom, both while I'm here and also after I graduate.
I was out jumping out of planes instead of worrying about what my summer job was going to be. The Air Force Academy is really leading the nation for undergraduate space education and training. We're creating so many new things and operating in a way that's exciting that we haven't done before.
What surprised me most about the Academy is that cadets are just normal college kids. It's easy to find people here that are interested in the same things as you and it's really easy to make friends. It's an altruistic endeavor. Something that is bigger than yourself. Helping protect our nation, helping protect the freedoms we enjoy each and every day.
Before coming here I was pretty shy and timid and I was put into these positions where I had to lead others and speak to others and it's helped me grow immensely as a person. They're gonna have the capability, competence, flexibility and motivation to adapt to whatever environment and set of challenges the military or the world throws at them in the future.