Tuesday, June 14, 2011

High Schoolers Offered An Insider's Look At West Point

I'm a big fan of the Summer Leaders Seminar, a program that invites high school soon-to-be-seniors to West Point for a couple weeks in the summer. In effect they get to "test drive" the military academy and see if it's for them:
WEST POINT, N.Y., June 8, 2011 -- Most students have never handled a weapon before or been asked to conduct a tactical room-clearing operation. Even fewer have experienced the swift pace of performing scientific experiments in the classroom one day to completing multiple obstacle courses with a team the next.

For more than 1,000 rising high school seniors, the Summer Leaders Seminar, or SLS, was a week-long exploration of the academic, athletic and military opportunities at West Point. Established by the West Point Admissions Office in 1976, SLS is a total immersion experience into what life as a cadet is like, led by the cadets themselves.

Class of 2013 Cadet Michael Sands wanted to provide students not with a sales pitch, but a real insider’s look into the academy.

“It’s not about getting every student wanting to come to the academy, but helping them to understand West Point and letting them make the decision for themselves,” the SLS squad leader said. “We’re not sugar-coating anything here. We tell them how it’s like. Beast is rough. We’re going to tell them it is rough.”

During the week, candidates ask cadets anything and can expect direct and honest answers, from explaining what Beast (Cadet Basic Training) is like to what kind of food is served at the Cadet Mess...

To learn more about the SLS program, visit the West Point Admissions website at www.admissions.usma.edu/summer_program.html.

A photo album is available at www.flickr.com/photos/west_point/.

That link actually takes you to the West Point Public Affairs page; this link gets you to the 2011 SLS pictures.

3 comments:

Mike Thiac said...

Did you take that in 82?

Darren said...

Mike, until July 1, 1983--the day I reported to West Point--I'd only set foot on a college campus once, and that was in 9th grade to attend a performance of Romeo and Juliet at Sac State. We were reading it in class and our teacher took a few of us in his van on a Saturday. I also attended JC as a HS senior to take calculus, but I'm talking more about 4-year schools here.

Curmudgeon said...

I did it in seventy-something. Still have the t-shirt in a box somewhere. Even though I had a place, I declined and went to Norwich instead. Sometimes wonder what it would have been like.