The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families. Through the perspective of a community of former graduates and Naval Academy insiders, this podcast will help you learn about life at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Through our shared experiences, Academy Insider guides families through the anxiety and frustration caused by lack of understanding, misinformation, and confusion. This platform is designed to better relationships between midshipmen and their loved ones. This podcast is not affiliated with the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy or Department of Defense. The thoughts and opinions are exclusively those of your host and his guests.
The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience
#102 Forge Your Future: Admissions Tips and Insight from The Founders of FYF
Forge Your Future
Are you passionate about serving your country and seeking a top-tier education? In this episode, I sit down with two remarkable Naval Academy graduates who are on a mission to help aspiring service academy and ROTC candidates achieve their dreams.
Meet Hersh and Mateo, founders of Forge Your Future, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free application assistance to high school students interested in attending U.S. Service Academies or pursuing ROTC scholarships. These two first-generation Americans share their inspiring journeys from immigrants to Naval Academy graduates, and now to MBA candidates at the University of Chicago.
What You'll Discover in This Episode:
• The story behind Forge Your Future and its mission to support underrepresented communities
• Insights into the Service Academy application process and how to prepare
• The life-changing impact of a Service Academy education
• How you can get involved and support this incredible initiative
Key Takeaways for Aspiring Candidates:
- 1. When to start preparing for your Service Academy or ROTC application
- 2. The importance of leadership experience and extracurricular activities
- 3. How Forge Your Future can assist you with essays, interviews, and more
- 4. The long-term benefits of a Service Academy or ROTC education
For Service Academy Graduates and Supporters:
- • Learn how you can contribute to shaping the next generation of military leaders
- • Discover volunteer opportunities with Forge Your Future
- • Understand the impact of mentorship on aspiring candidates
This episode is a must-listen for anyone considering a Service Academy or ROTC education, as well as those looking to give back to the military community. Join us as we explore how Forge Your Future is opening d
The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country. If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email grant@thevermeergroup.com
To stay most up to date with Grant, Naval Academy updates, and real estate insights, follow him on LinkedIn
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
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If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: email podcast@academyinsider.com or text Grant at (443) 951-3064
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. Today I'm super stoked to be joined by two class of 19 grads incredible young men who are both finishing up their time in the Navy and heading to graduate education, both at the University of Chicago. These guys are awesome and they're building an incredible project and platform to help young men and women all across our country this is the beautiful thing in order to support Service Academy and ROTC education. They're both first-generation Americans. They both moved here after being born abroad. Both went to the United States Naval Academy, served their time in the US Navy and now have a continued desire to give back and help people attain a Service Academy or an ROTC education. They're building a platform called Forge your Future. It's a 501c3 nonprofit organization that is going to assist young men and women with the service academy and ROTC application process. Again, a lot of things exist out there which are incredible services from independent, like college counselors and other services to help with the application process. This is designed for the people that don't have the capital to pay for that. How are we going to find and support and serve the young men and women who would have a desire to serve but just don't have the exposure, the opportunity to make it happen and provide that resource to give them an opportunity.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited for you guys to listen to this. After listening, if you decide you want to get in touch with Hirsch or Mateo, please reach out to me or them and we'll make it happen. We just need the support of the community to continue to grow this project. I love it so much. Thank you, guys. I hope you enjoyed the listen and have a good day. Hirsch and Matteo, my guys, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and be on the Academy Insider Podcast and talk about this incredible project that you're working on. But before we get there, I just want to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself to the Academy Insider audience. Hirsch, we'll start with you If you guys don't mind just giving a quick rundown of who you are, where you're from, how you grew up, what brought you to the Naval Academy and now currently where you're at today.
Speaker 2:Sure Sounds good. Grant, again, thanks so much for having us on. I'm happy to be with you doing with Academy Insider. And so a little bit about myself. I'm a Naval Academy 19 graduate, 2019 graduate, grew up in New Hampshire, coming from a first generation Indian American family. I commissioned as a meteorology oceanography officer and served for five and a half years on active duty and recently separated as of last year, and now I am going to be going to get my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and I'm going to be a student again. So super stoked for that, super stoked.
Speaker 1:Superstar dude and you Mateo. Yeah, Thanks, Grant, Really right. And you, Mateo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks, grant. We really appreciate you having us on your podcast. Mateo Ronquillo, class of 2019 grad at the US Naval Academy, born in Lima, peru, raised in San Francisco, california, commissioned in 2019 as a nuclear submarine officer, stationed a year in Charleston, stationed in Hawaii for the next four years. And yeah, now I worked for a year in defense tech and now I'm going to be getting my MBA and master's in data science at the University of Chicago.
Speaker 1:At UChicago. Hey, back together, back together in Chicago. You guys planning on living together. What's the plan? You guys inseparable at this point, or what's happening?
Speaker 3:We are going to be living together. Yeah, baby, just leveraging efficiency here at this point, but living together once more here in Chicago.
Speaker 1:Once more because you guys were roommates right, ersh.
Speaker 2:So actually we weren't roommates at the Academy but, funny enough, we both ended up getting stationed in Hawaii. Obviously, serendipity we can't control where the Navy brings us we ended up living together in Hawaii. Then Mateo went to DC. I followed. Now we're both in Chicago. It's just like when does it end? We're still trying to figure that out, but for now, for the next two years, we're going to be living together with a third roommate of ours, so it should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, no, 100%. And you guys again, obviously, roommates back in Hawaii, we're going to jump into what you're building with Forge your Future and I'll give you the and we'll use this opportunity to you know, talk about its history, backstory and what you're doing with forge your future.
Speaker 2:Sure, no great question, and you know it's something we're both passionate about talking about. But I'll start. So you know it was the classic hey, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? And Mateo was like, hey, I might go visit my dad. And I was like, hey, why don't you just like come with me to New Hampshire? My family knows Mateo really well. So we ended up doing the drive from DC to New Hampshire. I don't know why we decided to drive eight to ten hours, but we made it. And I remember my parents sat us down one night. We were just having dinner around the Think about where you guys were 10 years ago and we were like, okay, you know, we were like, you know, junior, senior, high school, not really knowing where we were going to go, what we were going to do and how many arcs of life we've lived.
Speaker 2:Right, like you know, we went through the Naval Academy. We both ended up getting stationed in Hawaii and now we're, like you know, in DC at the time and then now we're in Chicago now and we've been able to see different areas around the world and we were super thankful for all the opportunities that we had through the Navy. And we realized it all started with this idea of going to the Naval Academy, this idea of applying to a service academy ROTC program that provide us the opportunities therein, and so a table side conversation or dinnertime conversation with my parents turned into you know this, I guess late night talk of. You know how can we do something with this right, how can we give back? And so this was my way of wanting to give back to those that you know are looking to become the next aspiring leader and or person that is coming into. You know the armed services and you know, I think I'll let Mateo speak to his piece too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and yeah, like Hirsch mentioned, that was our origin story and what we're looking to do with Fortune Future is we're very excited to help out the next generation of leaders who are going to be becoming the future officers of the US Armed Forces. Future is focused on providing application assistance to high school students who want to either attend a US service academy so Annapolis, west Point, usapha, the US Coast Guard Academy and the US Merchant Marine Academy or that want to apply for a ROTC scholarship and attend a four-year institution.
Speaker 1:No, that's fantastic. And when you guys are saying, like, providing application support, what's the scope of your help? Right, like, at what level are you assisting? Because, to put this in perspective as well, correct, you guys have like incorporated this as a 501c3. It's a nonprofit organization. You're not, like, again, charging people for this service and again, there's always pros and cons to certain things. So the reality is it's like not your full-time profession, so you're not charging people, so the scope may be a little bit different. So, just interested in, again, the scope of help you're going to be providing if someone were to reach out to you at Forge your Future.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah, it's all free.
Speaker 3:We do not charge for any of the assistance we provide.
Speaker 3:When I say application assistance, the scope of that is we help high school students with interview preparation for, for example, interviews for the service academies or with one of the service academies admissions representatives or with a ROTC officer who will be conducting, who conducts interviews.
Speaker 3:So interview preparation, also essay assistance so we help students doing essay reviews and giving some tips as to where they can improve certain parts of their essays, such as crafting their story and just talking about their strengths. And, well, talking about their strengths and you know, see how we can improve on certain parts where they might not be as strong, so that we can help them get to a point where they'll be strong candidates during the application process. So those two things interview preparation, essay review we provide assistance with accountability. So helping them stay on top of the deadlines that are out there for different parts of the application. So things like when the essays are due, things when you have to submit your application for nominations specifically for the service academies, and, yes, that's all sorts of the all the deadlines that are involved in the process. But that's, that's the scope of the assistance we provide.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go for it. Something else I want to touch on in addition to you know the essay it Ersk ROTC cadet. What's the day in the life of insert name of institution here that might be very different from what I see for peers going to a four-year school and or institution elsewhere in the nation, and so we're really there to help the students understand what type of life they're about to endure for the next four years, what type of relationships they're about to have and, ultimately, where they're going to lead this life of military service and where it's going to bring them. Obviously, everyone has their own story and their own craft, some deciding to get out early and some deciding to go do a life career. But you know that's really what we're going to help them out with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, look, it's fantastic. Again, this stuff is. It's really interesting for me Because, again, what I love about it is when I had my early visions of Academy Insider, part of me was like, oh, I want to help with, like, the application process. This was something that was really frustrating to me. Again, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, not a massive Naval presence. I really didn't even know what the Naval Academy was until I started to get recruited to play basketball and then, like, going through the application process was a whole nother beast because, even though I was a recruited athlete, basically the coaches were, like, figure it out right. Like apply, like you're going to have to go through the process. I ended up getting my you know, nomination from Congresswoman Eshoo out in California and I was like, so I went through the whole process and I was, like, you know, stumbling through the whole thing and I had no idea. But at the end of the day, like, again, I lived a pretty privileged life growing up, right, like I had two parents who were very involved, they helped me out, we figured it out right.
Speaker 1:But, like, not everyone has the ability to access that, and especially in today's day and age. And again, this is not a knock on these things. I think they're incredible services if you have the capital to be able to pay for them. But there are a lot of incredible like consulting services that may run you literally about 10 grand. That will be like hold your hand through the process, right. And again, they're incredible. Not everyone has 10 grand to help on a like, on an application support, right.
Speaker 1:And so you know I just I have a passion for this in like as well. Like I just want to support you guys in everything you're doing, because to be able to provide that level of insight, to be able to provide that support, that secondary look, that preparation assistance to people who might not otherwise be able to have that in their corner, that's huge right. And like the more that we can have representation from all across the country, every demographic, every region of the United States, from every background and every different like socioeconomic piece, right. Like it's part of what makes the pie of the American military so incredible, including in the like in the wardroom and in the like officer ranks. And so, again, I just like I love what you guys are doing, I'm so excited about this and I even just want to dig a little bit more again into like what.
Speaker 1:What motivated you guys to start this Cause? Like, did you know that you wanted to go to the Naval Academy when you were both growing up? And you know you mentioned your first. You know, like first generation, born here, american Indian Mateo. You moved here from Peru. You grew up for a lot of your time in Peru. Like, what was your guys' driving force and motivation yourselves to attend a service academy and what assistance and support did you have, if at all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm happy to take that question. So actually, grant, I was actually born in India, but I moved to New Hampshire when I was very young, so I was four months old. Yeah, no, yeah. So I was super young and obviously raised very American, you know, growing up in New.
Speaker 2:Hampshire, you know suburban neighborhood, white picket fence, all the fun things, neighborhood block parties and the like. And there was a moment in my life that really struck me. It was, you know, August of 2006. I was nine years old. We had just come back from a family trip to India, probably six months before, and you know, there was a huge awakening that I had at nine years old. Going on that trip, it was like wow, like this could have been my life right. And I'm not to say or discount you know that experience, you know very proud of where I come from, very proud of my heritage, but I didn't realize how different that side of the world was. I didn't realize, like, what taking an opportunity for granted meant and something my parents always talked about, right, Like never take an opportunity for granted. And one aspect that I really remember going back to August 2006 is my parents hoisting me up in the air as we were getting naturalized in that New Hampshire courthouse and becoming American citizens. The flags were waving, tears were shed and people were just very emotional. I just remember that being a very moving part of what defined my journey to get to the Naval Academy.
Speaker 2:Going into my junior or senior year, I started to take an interest, a very deep interest, into you know what a life service might look like, and so you know both of my parents were military brats growing up. You know, my dad's dad served in the Indian Air Force. My mom's dad served in the Indian Army, so we always had a semblance of understanding of what military life looked like, but from a very far removed lens, at least in my case. Very far removed lens, at least in my case. And so that was my initial inspiration, right Like being able to carry that line forward, to give a country, to give back to a country that gave my parents and I, as well as my brother, so much. And you know, really just have that pay it forward mentality.
Speaker 1:So that's my story Heck yeah.
Speaker 3:What about you, mateo?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, for me, my motivational moment came I think it was my sophomore year of high school when, during my naturalization ceremony in Oakland, california, and during that time, I think at that point in time you know my with my parents, with growing up in well, I grown up up until 10 years old in Peru and I think at that point in time it made me realize that this was our new home for the rest of our lives, and so I really felt inspired to just serve and essentially give back to the country really that gave us so many opportunities.
Speaker 3:I think it's safe to say that I wouldn't be here today if my parents hadn't made the decision to move to the San Francisco Bay Area, and I wouldn't have a lot of the relationships that I have right now with friends, close family friends, if I hadn't grown up in San Francisco. And so for me, at that point in time, that naturalization ceremony during my sophomore year of high school was really the motivational moment that I look back to, when I decided during my senior year of high school that I really wanted to do this, that I wanted to go ahead and give back to nature the country that really gave me an opportunity to make something of myself and it's something that I hope to help, you know, students, high school students who might be, might find themselves in underrepresented communities, and give them that help, give them that chance to also go ahead and, you know, give back to the Us and make something of themselves something I want to touch on in addition to that grant is you asked us like how much help or support we had.
Speaker 2:You know, going through the process. I'm very similar to you in the case, like most of my parents were very involved in the process, right like I remember having, you know, pretty much daily check-ins. I would come back high school track practice, coming home helping mom out, cook and clean, and you know now it's like I'm looking at like high school homework and my dad's like, so where are you out with your applications? And I'm like, okay, the answer of a beast that I got to deal with, but very thankful for the they gave me through that process and you know would not have been anywhere close to getting that thing done had it not been for their enough support. You know, yeah, time no. So that's my story there dude, I, I love it.
Speaker 1:And again, it's. It's hilarious because for me too, right, like, well, my dad, like, when I, when, again, when the basketball coach like offered me to come play basketball at the naval academy, my dad was like he was like over the moon. He's. Like this is the coolest thing in the world. Like, are you kidding me? Like this is the greatest experience. And then, from then on, it was like all right, moon, he's like this is the coolest thing in the world. Like, are you kidding me? Like this is the greatest experience. And then, from then on, it was like all right, well, application, application, application. Like have you? Yeah, have you? Have you done this? Have you done that? Have you submitted this? Have you submitted that? Like, let me take a look. Right, and so you know I had that experience.
Speaker 1:But what's been really interesting? Like applications? As a blue and gold officer, you know, I feel like I've actually been pretty proactive in reaching out to people who submit that, even just like submit the like. The first thing that says like I want to open up an application portal, right, like, I generally reach out each year. Like, I was assigned basically 10 potential candidates in both years, only about three or four people actually made it to the end of the application process, right. And so that piece was really interesting to me, because I'm trying to reach out but, like you know, you don't want to be overbearing necessarily, but I would check in and make sure to see if they need any help.
Speaker 1:And just again, the amount of people, because it's such an in-depth process, again, if you don't have that support at home, like it might be tough sometimes, right. And so to have the service that you guys have, that's not going to come out of cost for some of these individuals, but it's going to provide them a resource, it's going to provide them a guide, it's going to provide them just the general wherewithal and accountability to make their way through the process. And I think there are so many people who would be incredible candidates for a service academy who just don't have the environment at home to like get them through the process, right. And so I'm super stoked about what you guys are doing. Like I think this is super cool.
Speaker 1:Obviously, the two of you are like heading this operation, but I mean that's a lot of work. Like, how are you guys sourcing help? You know who are you reaching out to. What's your current level of you know, volunteerism or support you're receiving for this, and you know, if you had a call to action for any alumni who are listening to this, like what would it be? Like what do you guys need your staff of volunteers to look like to be successful?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. And while it's yeah, absolutely from every branch, and so it's really a group effort, a team effort here with us, and then just really all the people who have volunteered, our board of directors, our mentors and all the volunteers who are part of FYF now Our mentors. So we've been pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support of people who have signed up to be mentors, either active duty officers who have attended a ROTC program or a service academy, or former active duty officers who have been those things in the past. And we really are. Our volunteers are represented from every single branch. So we have people from the Navy, from the Army, air Force, coast Guard, and then also from just a wide range of schools, people who have gone to schools from the West Coast to the East Coast and to every single service academy Annapolis, west Point, usafa Coast Guard Academy and US Merchant Marine Academy. So we have people that we can connect with, high school students, depending on their goal, of what service academies they want to attend to or what Rossi scholarships they're interested in.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, I think, a call to action from that right no-transcript four-year institution they decide to go to, or you want to help us out with brand management or internal operations, or you're like, hey, like I have a really good background in fundraising, like you know. We would love to talk to you, right, because I think there's a couple of different things that we're learning about a 501c3. And it's a very new thing for us and we've been able to collaborate with a lot of people who have come from different things that we're learning about Wanting to pay it forward both in and out of uniform. I think that's why Mateo and I are doing this personally, just like the inherent selfishness of like wanting to continue to stay involved in the community and pay it forward while we're both out of uniform and being able to go do that next thing, and we don't want to lose sight of that. We don't want to lose touch with you know really what builds us to where we are today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. And if contact information, like in the show notes of this and in the descriptions. But if someone's just listening on a walk right now, where can they find you guys to be able to like look?
Speaker 3:look you up and reach out if they want to. Yeah, it's absolutely we have. Right now, our principal way of communication is our website, wwwfortuafutureorg. If you are interested in signing up or just getting in touch with us, please go on there and just leave us a note. There is a very easy link that you can click on and redirect you to the site where you can message us. We also have we're starting to build up our social media. So right now, fortune Future has LinkedIn, instagram and YouTube. Now we are working on adding content to all those social media platforms, but that's coming. That's up next.
Speaker 2:And then you know, just a personal plug. You know, if you want to connect with either of us individually, feel free to hit us up on LinkedIn. And you know our personal emails for Forge your Future are hir or forgeyourfutureorg or Mateo at forgeyourfutureorg. You know, just drop usa note. You know website works best. But if you guys are really stoked and excited and want to get involved, you know, please feel free to hit us up. We're always looking to build new relationships and connections.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, no, absolutely. And what would I know? You're talking different ways to help. What's an expected time commitment? Right, if there's a grad listening, they're like I want to help but like I don't know that I'm actually going to be able to commit to it. What's an anticipated time amount they should be looking at if they're going to support this endeavor.
Speaker 2:So I think it comes in two different facets. I think the first thing is you know one? Do you have an applicant that's in the active application cycle? I can speak from personal experience. I'm meeting with my candidate once or twice a week, but that's because I feel like I want to be more intimately involved with my candidate.
Speaker 1:And that's about 30 to 45%. That's the brand, baby. Yeah, that one's got to go well.
Speaker 2:And so that's just me just wanting to be really excited and truthfully just involved, as so you know, ben, if you're listening, shout out. But regardless, I think it just really depends on how involved you want to be. I mean, the usual reference check that we usually tell people is, you know, one hour every two weeks, right? You know, having that check in, having an in-depth look at you know people's applications and you know the essay and interview support that you're giving. Now, if you're doing it outside of the mentee regimen and you're doing it more off a volunteer basis, then you know we can work out a tailored plan for you to see where you can get best involved and, you know, go from there, maybe. That.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's. I think that's a good reference point. One hour, one hour every two weeks, I think it's the minimum time commitment that we ask for, and then from there you know, based on what the needs of the mentee are with regards to their application and going from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I look, I love this, right Like again. For me, this is really interesting because, as a blue and gold officer, I like, when I started to be a blue and gold officer, I felt like I was going to kind of work in this role a little bit and I certainly have helped with interview prep a little bit. But, like, when it comes to personal statement writing and essays, like it's, it's outside of my scope, right. Like it genuinely is outside of my scope, right. And so you know, for anyone out there who's listening, who's like, well, I'm a blue and gold officer already. Or like, what's the difference between being a blue and gold officer and doing this? Right Like again, this is going to be a great opportunity to make a direct impact in the life of one person who is like choosing to do this and being very invested and taking a look at all these different aspects, which I think is really cool If there's, like, a high school student out there listening right now.
Speaker 1:What's the timeline? Again, we're going to be releasing this episode. This episode is coming out in September, right? So the cycle is going to go all the way through, basically January to get things submitted. Obviously, we have this year when this is releasing, in 2025. That may be on a compressed timeline, but for future classes, if there's even like a sophomore listening or a junior in high school listening, what's an appropriate time frame to be reaching out to you guys to take advantage of these services and what does that look like? When I reach out to you as a 16 or 17-year-old kid and reach out to you, what does the process look like? Like what am I going to be going through?
Speaker 3:to the service academies, and I believe this also applies to ROTC. But you have to finish your year Now. I think the ideal timeframe for high school students interested in submitting an application would be just prior to starting the summer, after your junior year, that you reach out to us. That way we can work with you on developing the necessary materials for your application during the summer. Now, a lot of nomination applications senator or congressman nominations are those things that are required to be. They're required essentially for anyone interested in submitting an application to any of the US service academies, and so some of those deadlines are actually at the end of or middle of October, and I think there might be a few that are at the end of August. So some of them. But depending on that, if you're a high school senior and you're interested in submitting an application for starting next year, please reach out to us now. That way we can help you get the necessary application materials together.
Speaker 2:So just to caveat on that real quick, I think if you are genuinely interested in learning about a service academy or ROTC program looks like and what your life could look like for the next five to 10 to 15 to X amount of years, reach us.
Speaker 2:Reach out to us during your junior year, because I think there are a lot of aspects of the application that we can help best prepare you for, like how are you getting involved as a leader in your community? What type of extracurriculars are you doing outside of the classroom? What do your academics look like and how can you further you know how can you further, further bolster them if need to. You know who are you working with alongside at your school that can advocate for you from, like, a recommendation perspective. There's a lot of things to take into account so we can start helping you in your junior year. But if you're really looking to apply, definitely get in touch with us the moment you step off foot from your high school campus and, like are ready to go into the summer. That's when the work starts. So reach out to us during the summer before your senior year and you know we're going to get started hot off the presses for your application preparation.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Absolutely Heck yeah, and again, hirsch, you're mentioning, like, taking a look at what this outlook means for your life, right, like what the next five years looks like, but what the next 10 years could look like and what the next 20 years can look like.
Speaker 1:And again, both of you experienced the generational changing opportunities of a service academy, right From not only the education to your fleet experience but now into elite graduate education, right, and I think this is really incredible. Again, if you haven't listened, I encourage and I'll put links to all this stuff in the show notes but go, take a listen to my episode that I did with Troy Thompson. That's all about the generational changing opportunities that exist in Annapolis. That exist, all about the generational changing opportunities that exist in Annapolis, that exist as a result of a service Academy education. And what I want to turn back to you guys is, as well as this idea of what does a service education mean in your opinion, or an ROTC education, right, like how has this impacted your life and why should a young man or woman listening to this consider a service academy or a ROTC scholarship for their college education?
Speaker 3:So, yeah, service academy education is is really a great way to become a well-rounded leader in today's world. So, Just, service academies offer a wide variety of majors STEM majors, science majors and even liberal arts majors, and so but along with that, along with your major courses and really your specialty, you have those leadership basics that help you really become a well-rounded be in the armed forces. You will have those leadership fundamentals along with your major to be the best leader you can be, and so that kind of leadership education is extremely valuable in today's world, Because not just in the armed forces, but also in the private sector is something that companies look for all the time. So that's really the value of a service academy education that you will become a well-rounded leader and really have a set of marketable skills after you graduate.
Speaker 2:So I want to touch on my own personal experience. I think I agree with all those points that Matteo made. You know, being in this leadership lab, whether you're an ROTC program or a service Academy, you are thrown with the fire with people that have a common passion and purpose of serving alongside you to go lead the next generation of American military service members. And I think within that you have to look at okay. One, you're about to make relationships that are going to last a lifetime and even more. Okay, like, the people that I've met through service are some of the closest friendships and relationships that I've been able to build within my entire life. And again, there have been multiple arcs and stages of life, right, childhood, college, graduate school, time on active duty, time post active duty, going into graduate school, again like. There's a lot of different relationships that I've built, but I think some of my strongest are from the service academy and or RTC network.
Speaker 2:So that's one. Two, the idea of a worldly perspective. Okay, and I cannot tell you how much travel I did while I was at the United States Naval Camp, and I'm not talking about spring break trips, I'm not talking about, you know, going a weekend here and there. I'm talking like going through military training. I mean, I got sent to San Diego, hawaii, bahrain, italy and probably a number of other places I'm not even thinking about right now that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do and learn from from people of some different walks of life had it not been for that education and being able to teach me about different people, different facets of life and ultimately, how to lead them into the things that they're going to be doing in so many different walks. So those are the things that I would say make a great service academy and or ROTC education.
Speaker 1:Heck. Yeah, guys, I love it. Like, again, I'm just going to, I'm just going to double down on this, which is the service that you guys are providing is much needed. Right, it's going to hit the people that need the support, who have the desire, who are highly competent, who are highly capable and they just need a little support to get the same opportunities that other people may get. Right, and, like, I love, I love that right, this idea of you both understanding how important your upbringing in the United States was and what it meant to you, your desire to go serve, and now your desire not to just coast on this opportunity that you've had, but to bring back and reach down and bring up the next wave of people who have that same desire as you but might not have the same opportunity as you. And that is really cool, it's admirable. I love it. Right, like I want to support this in any way that I can. Right, and that's why I'm so excited to have you guys on the platform.
Speaker 1:And again, for all my Service Academy grads who are listening, and parents who are just very involved in the Service Academy process as well, the college professors out there that listen to this platform, if you guys want to give back and help, please reach out to Hersh and Mateo. This platform will only be as strong as the community that invests into it as well, and I think we have that here within the Service Academy community to do a great thing and make it happen. For anyone out there who's listening again, please feel free to reach out. Like you may listen to this and be like, oh, this is awesome and great, but like I do actually want a independent counselor, like an independent college counselor, to help me with my stuff. Reach out.
Speaker 1:I mean, there are some incredible services the Serve Well Academy, academy Endeavors, lisa Hillhouse, who's going to be on here talking about ROC versus, you know, a service academy, education on a future episode, like all these things. There's so many great resources out there. What makes this extra special for Hirsch and Mateo right is it is this pure altruistic vision to help those who don't have the resource to be able to do that with capital right, and so I'm so happy to have you guys on the platform. I'm so glad we've been able to connect. I'm looking forward to supporting this project however I can, and before we wrap up, I want to push it back in your corner to see if you guys have any lasting or last things that you want to bring up that I may not have asked about that like you wanted to talk about or or anything. Just kind of final words for you know the academy, is that our audience?
Speaker 3:just some final world words. If you are a high school student and you're interested in rotzi or a service academy, please reach out. If you're a parent and know someone who might be interested in Roxy or Search Academy, also please reach out. We are more than happy to help.
Speaker 2:And we appreciate you, grant, again for having us on your platform. We appreciate everything Academy Insider has done. Also, shout out to Troy Thompson Six Company. If you're in the house, you know what's up, and much love to all the listeners and support of this platform. We're super stoked to have you on board and look forward to working with you.
Speaker 1:Love it. Mateo, gracias por estar aqui con nosotros y compartir tu historia De verdad. Like we love having you on here. This is awesome to make it happen. Hirsch, my guy, you're the man I'm like. I'm excited for this for you guys. Again, excited for this for you guys. Again, listeners, if you have any questions, reach out to Hirsch, mateo, directly, reach out to me. I'll get you in touch and we'll make that thing happen. But again, forge your future new 501c3, getting ready.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to probably have you guys back on the podcast next year after your first wave of help to kind of talk about things that you saw common trends, things that went well, things that didn't go well and tips for people coming through in the next year. But for right now, we just want to get you guys the exposure and get people in your corner to start building the data and the reps and sets to make this a great service and really appreciate it To everyone listening. Thank you so much and I hope you have a great rest of your day, appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it and learned something during this time. If you did. Please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. Thank you.
