I have been fascinated with aviation for as long as I can remember, from touring cockpits on large 737s to visiting air and space museums wherever we traveled. Growing up as an Air Force brat nurtured my love for aviation by consistently pushing me to be curious and hard-working for everything in life. Due to this early foundation, I have had and still have the goal of attending the United States Air Force Academy, which continues to motivate me to grow and become as involved as possible in the aviation industry. Primarily, my journey in aviation began with me joining the Civil Air Patrol to initiate my flight training, first to expose myself to free flights and eventually to become a SAR pilot while working to be a real military pilot. Within two months of joining the Civil Air Patrol, I had my first orientation ride; little did I know this first flight would ignite my hunger to fly by all means necessary. I jumped on every opportunity to progress in the program: promoting, leading, and serving as a color guard member before I got my second chance on a plane. This second experience was no different from the first, but I now knew that it would never be able to satiate this new hunger; I continued promoting to make it to my first encampment to be eligible to compete for the Civil Air Patrol solo academies and continued working to get any flight experience I could. Shortly after this, the Air Force announced the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Flight Academy Scholarship for eligible AFJROTC students. So I continued my path and joined the JROTC at my school in addition to CAP and Boy Scouts. I utilized each of these programs to make myself as competitive as possible for the service academies and to achieve my goal of becoming a pilot. After three years of hard work and leadership in AFJROTC, I began an application for the CSAF Flight Academy, where I was competitive enough to earn a spot in the 2022 flight academy class. In eight weeks, I worked on my private pilot license at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After 51 days, I completed my check ride and became the first in my family to be a pilot. When I returned to high school, I was privileged to wear a flight suit and wings on uniform days to display my hard work. Wearing the uniforms reminded me that hard work pays off and to make the most of my knowledge by sharing it with others. I taught cadets in my wing to fly using the flight sim we had purchased and worked to encourage and tutor the cadets working to attend the 2023 flight academy. Presently, I am working on an instrument rating while having 75.5 flight hours, with plans of becoming knowledgeable to make myself hyper-competitive for the flight team, and eventually being a CFI. Additionally, my goal is to become very involved in the Billings and Rocky communities by competing in NAIA sports and working at Chick-fil-A. All of these tasks have double responsibility; one is to demonstrate my time management, with a full academic load and to see what I can handle concerning affording school and keeping meaningful facets of my life afloat in a more realistic test. I chose to enroll at Rocky Mountain College since my present schedule includes my instrument rating I intend to move to the commercial class for the spring semester of this year.

From my earliest days as a leader, I have worked to continuously improve my character and leadership by jumping head-first into activities that would expand my repertoire. Something that I have learned to value as a cadet and as a young adult is: to never stop learning. While this expression speaks for itself, it has shaped me into the person I am today, all because when offered an opportunity to grow as a leader or to experience something new, I took it. Shortly after joining Boy Scouts, I was invited to be an assistant patrol leader. My tasks were to assist the patrol leader in teaching, leading, and learning from them so that I could take over the position someday. Since I said yes to being the assistant, I began receiving my first training lesson as a leader. After learning how to teach, the next step was experiencing leadership; I took on roles that evolved my responsibility to encompass kitchen equipment and eventually the whole troop as the senior patrol leader. All of the mentoring I received from each of my positions culminated in giving me the tools to complete my Eagle Scout project and subsequently earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Despite the experiences I got from my scouting leaders, I don’t think I would have been as successful had I not joined Civil Air Patrol and my school’s JROTC. All of this leadership extra-curricular meant I gained valuable experience working with many different people and have had various doors opened for me. For example, I learned conflict management through friends and peers of various ages through my endeavors in Civil Air Patrol and JROTC. Yet, these programs offered me so much more than leadership and character development; they gave me insight into a future career as a leader and pilot. For the former, I competed to earn the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Flight Academy Scholarship and was successful. This scholarship meant I could get a headstart at becoming a pilot through an Air Force-sponsored program. Since returning from the flight academy, I have been encouraged by my JROTC instructor to share my experiences and teach other cadets how to fly on the simulator that my unit received. Despite earning the scholarship several months ago, the opportunity to achieve my PPC has continued to pay dividends since it has opened many doors for me to continue teaching and sharing what I know. Now looking into the future, these experiences have developed me into who I am and what I want to do during my life: serve my nation, aid others, and make a difference in their lives. And one of the routes to accomplishing these goals is attending college to pay for additional flight ratings and working to be a functional member of society. While many will say the money does not matter when giving back, there is a certain point I agree with. Working as a pilot brings extra finances to be spent on various community organizations, you cannot run a food pantry without food and people need to pay for that food before it can be donated. Ultimately working through college toward a longtime goal of flight and a dream of serving my community will fulfill the desire to escape the surly bonds of Earth and be a staple for my community. Winners and Finalists

From my earliest days as a leader, I have worked to continuously improve my character and leadership by jumping head-first into activities that would expand my repertoire. Something that I have learned to value as a cadet and as a young adult is: to never stop learning. While this expression speaks for itself, it has shaped me into the person I am today, all because when offered an opportunity to grow as a leader or to experience something new, I took it. Shortly after joining Boy Scouts, I was invited to be an assistant patrol leader. My tasks were to assist the patrol leader in teaching, leading, and learning from them so that I could take over the position someday. Since I said yes to being the assistant, I began receiving my first training lesson as a leader. After learning how to teach, the next step was experiencing leadership; I took on roles that evolved my responsibility to encompass kitchen equipment and eventually the whole troop as the senior patrol leader. All of the mentoring I received from each of my positions culminated in giving me the tools to complete my Eagle Scout project and subsequently earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Despite the experiences I got from my scouting leaders, I don’t think I would have been as successful had I not joined Civil Air Patrol and my school’s JROTC. All of this leadership extra-curricular meant I gained valuable experience working with many different people and have had various doors opened for me. For example, I learned conflict management through friends and peers of various ages through my endeavors in Civil Air Patrol and JROTC. Yet, these programs offered me so much more than leadership and character development; they gave me insight into a future career as a leader and pilot. For the former, I competed to earn the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Flight Academy Scholarship and was successful. This scholarship meant I could get a headstart at becoming a pilot through an Air Force-sponsored program. Since returning from the flight academy, I have been encouraged by my JROTC instructor to share my experiences and teach other cadets how to fly on the simulator that my unit received. Despite earning the scholarship several months ago, the opportunity to achieve my PPC has continued to pay dividends since it has opened many doors for me to continue teaching and sharing what I know. Now looking into the future, these experiences have developed me into who I am and what I want to do during my life: serve my nation, aid others, and make a difference in their lives. And one of the routes to accomplishing these goals is attending college to pay for additional flight ratings and working to be a functional member of society. While many will say the money does not matter when giving back, there is a certain point I agree with. Working as a pilot brings extra finances to be spent on various community organizations, you cannot run a food pantry without food and people need to pay for that food before it can be donated. Ultimately working through college toward a longtime goal of flight and a dream of serving my community will fulfill the desire to escape the surly bonds of Earth and be a staple for my community.

At the beginning of the college search process, my guidance counselor indicated that choosing schools should include dream schools, essentially, the top school I desired, ignoring the cost and difficulty of admittance. My long-time collegiate goal was to attend the United States Air Force Academy or other prestigious service academies. I utilized every route to make myself as competitive as possible; I played varsity sports, worked towards and completed my Eagle project, challenged myself academically, and grew as a leader of character in several other extracurriculars. These years of dedication towards personal improvement and service to my community began to pay off; I made each cut of the admissions process up until recently. The competition in each of the nominating sources' interviews was sky-high. Hundreds of applicants compete for a few slots at each service academy. Out of the 5th congressional district, the most competitive for the United States Air Force Academy, I received no nomination for any of the service academies. But I kept fighting, failing to give up, and working to achieve what I had worked so hard for. Good news came on a dreary morning; I had received a nomination to West Point! Two weeks later, the waitlisted letter came out. Upon further research, I was one of 150 who barely did not make the initial appointment list. Two weeks later, I received a letter denying my admittance to West Point. Boom! Just like that, I was down to my last life. In the uncertainty of attending a service academy, I began looking further into my safe schools(ones that guarantee acceptance). My intended safe school encountered a surplus of flight students due to poor weather the previous two years and ended up declining my admittance into the flight school. At this point, nearly all of my plans had fallen through; no West Point, no Naval Academy, no flight school, and a likely no to my dream school. With all of this failure stacked against me, I worked to find some success in anything. I trained harder in the gym and on the track, worked diligently in my classes, and labored to find someone to help keep my mind off my failures. While the latter was the least successful, training and learning allowed me to control the outcome for my benefit, and it helped me get out of the rut caused by all of the unsuccessful goals. Now looking into the future, these experiences have developed me into who I am and what I want to do during my life: serve my nation, aid others, and make a difference in their lives. And one of the routes to accomplishing these goals is attending college to pay for additional flight ratings and working to be a functional member of society. While many will say the money does not matter when giving back, there is a certain point I agree with. Working as a pilot brings extra finances to be spent on various community organizations, you cannot run a food pantry without food and people need to pay for that food before it can be donated. Ultimately working through college toward a longtime goal and a dream of serving my community will allow me to serve my community more completely in the future. Persevering through this difficulty has made me stronger and more resilient to the disappointments that seem so expected while striving to attain challenging goals. Because when all is said and done, the challenge makes life worth living. “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.” Bob Parsons

From my earliest days as a leader, I have worked to continuously improve my character and leadership by jumping head-first into activities that would expand my repertoire. Something that I have learned to value as a cadet and as a young adult is: to never stop learning. While this expression speaks for itself, it has shaped me into the person I am today, all because when offered an opportunity to grow as a leader or to experience something new, I took it. Shortly after joining Boy Scouts, I was invited to be an assistant patrol leader. My tasks were to assist the patrol leader in teaching, leading, and learning from them so that I could take over the position someday. Since I said yes to being the assistant, I began receiving my first training lesson as a leader. After learning how to teach, the next step was experiencing leadership; I took on roles that evolved my responsibility to encompass kitchen equipment and eventually the whole troop as the senior patrol leader. All of the mentoring I received from each of my positions culminated in giving me the tools to complete my Eagle Scout project and subsequently earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Despite the experiences I got from my scouting leaders, I don’t think I would have been as successful had I not joined Civil Air Patrol and my school’s JROTC. All of this leadership extra-curricular meant I gained valuable experience working with many different people and have had various doors opened for me. For example, I learned conflict management through friends and peers of various ages through my endeavors in Civil Air Patrol and JROTC. Yet, these programs offered me so much more than leadership and character development; they gave me insight into a future career as a leader and pilot. For the former, I competed to earn the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Flight Academy Scholarship and was successful. This scholarship meant I could get a headstart at becoming a pilot through an Air Force-sponsored program. Since returning from the flight academy, I have been encouraged by my JROTC instructor to share my experiences and teach other cadets how to fly on the simulator that my unit received. Despite earning the scholarship several months ago, the opportunity to achieve my PPC has continued to pay dividends since it has opened many doors for me to continue teaching and sharing what I know. Now looking into the future, these experiences have developed me into who I am and what I want to do during my life: serve my nation, aid others, and make a difference in their lives. And one of the routes to accomplishing these goals is attending college to pay for additional flight ratings and working to be a functional member of society. While many will say the money does not matter when giving back, there is a certain point I agree with. Working as a pilot brings extra finances to be spent on various community organizations, you cannot run a food pantry without food and people need to pay for that food before it can be donated. Ultimately working through college toward a longtime goal and a dream of serving my community will allow me to serve my community more completely in the future.

At the beginning of the college search process, my guidance counselor indicated that choosing schools to apply to should be based on several things. It broke down further to include dream schools, essentially, the top school I desired, ignoring the cost and difficulty of admittance. My long-time collegiate goal was to attend the United States Air Force Academy or other prestigious service academies. I utilized every route to make myself as competitive as possible; I played varsity sports, worked towards and completed my Eagle project, challenged myself academically, and grew as a leader of character in several other extracurriculars. These years of dedication towards personal improvement and service to my community began to pay off; I made each cut of the admissions process up until recently. The competition in each of the nominating sources' interviews was sky-high. Hundreds of applicants compete for a few slots at each service academy. Out of the 5th congressional district, the most competitive for the United States Air Force Academy, I received no nomination for any of the service academies. But I kept fighting, failing to give up, and working to achieve what I had worked so hard for. Good news came on a dreary morning; I had received a nomination to West Point! Two weeks later, the waitlisted letter came out. Upon further research, I was one of 150 who barely did not make the initial appointment list. Two weeks later, I received a letter denying my admittance to West Point. Boom! Just like that, I was down to my last life. In the uncertainty of attending a service academy, I began looking further into my safe schools(ones that guarantee acceptance). My intended safe school encountered a surplus of flight students due to poor weather the previous two years and ended up declining my admittance into the flight school. At this point, nearly all of my plans had fallen through; no West Point, no Naval Academy, no flight school, and a likely no to my dream school. With all of this failure stacked against me, I worked to find some success in anything. I trained harder in the gym and on the track, worked diligently in my classes, and labored to find someone to help keep my mind off my failures. While the latter was the least successful, training and learning allowed me to control the outcome for my benefit, and it helped me get out of the rut caused by all of the unsuccessful goals. Persevering through this difficulty has made me stronger and more resilient to the disappointments that seem so expected while striving to attain challenging goals. Because when all is said and done, the challenge makes life worth living. “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.” Bob Parsons