Seniors Korynn Sims and Austin Parry tested themselves at military academy summer programs. Sims went to the Summer Seminar program at the Naval Academy, while Parry went to the Academy Introduction Mission (AIM) at The Coast Guard Academy.

     The Naval Academy Summer Seminar program “is a six-day program that gives high school students a taste of what it’s like to be a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy,” states The United States Naval Academy. Sims describes it as “very rigorous in terms of discipline; throughout the week, we learned how to work as a squad, platoon, company, and battalion.” She continues, “I got to participate in physical fitness daily and experience academic classes that exposed specific naval academy academics to me.”

     Sims favorite part was “either the physical fitness test or the mock plebe summer test, [which was on] the second to last day of the seminar.” The mock plebe test turned into a big competition between squads at the end of the week. “During this we did a lot of physical stuff, tons of running and a lot of team spirit yelling,” explained Sims. 

     But at the program, it wasn’t just all fun and games. The senior’s least favorite part was “being tested at the end of the week.” She explains, “[On] day one, we’re all handed a sheet of paper with tons of information to memorize, then at the end of the week, we stood on the wall and were tested on how much we actually were able to memorize.” If they answered wrong, then their whole group would have to do a physical exercise for punishment. Even though it was hard, there were many good things that came out of it, which included meeting people from all around the country. “I’m still in contact with people from all over, such as Massachusetts, Virginia, California, Minnesota, Texas, and Mexico,” said Sims.

     The AIM Program “Is a one-week summer program where you’ll immerse yourself  in Academy life,” says The United States Coast Guard Academy. The goal of AIM is to put you to the test and get a feel for what the academy is like. Parry described his experience as, “a lot of yelling, but pretty fun; we built things in engineering workshops, and learned about military customs.”  He says, “going into it, I was feeling pretty good until they started yelling, and then I wasn’t.” While at the program, students wake up early and throughout the day test their mind and body through many different activities.  

     At the program they learned new activities, including sailing. “The sailing was very fun and all of it was great, but especially the sailing,” said Parry. Although there were some fun things, there were also hard things and unenjoyable things. One thing that Parry struggled with was “The shouting, not just them shouting at you, but you shouting back at them,” he explained. Just like Sims, Parry also got to meet people all around the world “It was pretty cool, my two roommates were really cool,” said Parry.

     Both Sims and Parry had a great experience at the programs and said they are still working hard and trying to get into the Academies.