Drew Brown ’24 and Caleb Dacus ’24 each received some exciting news to kick off the new year. Brown accepted an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, which boasts about an 11% acceptance rate. Dacus was awarded a J-100 AFJROTC Character-in-Leadership Scholarship, which includes four years of 100% paid tuition and to any university with AFROTC plus a $10,000 yearly stipend for housing and books.
Brown spent the first week of last summer vacation at the United States Naval Academy Summer Seminar, a highly competitive program that serves as a preliminary application to the Academy. Approximately only 850 students are accepted into each session, which introduces them to life at the Naval Academy and exposes them to first-class academic, athletic, and professional training.
In addition to serving as Cathedral Prep’s AFJROTC Inspector General and Kitty Hawk Air Society Commander, Brown is also Senior Class President, Vice President of National Honor Society, and Student Council Public Relations Officer. Brown is also a captain of Prep’s back-to-back PIAA state champion swimming & diving team.
Dacus spent the summer prior to his senior year at the Air Force JROTC Flight Academy. He was chosen as one of only 200 Air Force Junior ROTC cadets from across the country and attended the highly selective academy at Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Flight Academy is a two-month aviation training program free for students through scholarships funded by the U.S. Air Force. At the end of the program, Dacus earned his private pilot's certification, which he used to conduct a historical flyover before Cathedral Prep’s homecoming football game in October! In addition to having served as Cathedral Prep’s AFJROTC deputy commander, PA-931, from his junior to senior year at Prep, Dacus is a captain of the Prep hockey team. He was also the first student from Western Pennsylvania this year to be awarded a Member of Congress Nomination to the Air Force Academy from Senator Bob Casey and Representative Mike Kelly.