Nominees for the J100 scholarship were announced on Friday January 26th. Among those announced were two TWHS students, Liam Hughes and Bryce Walles.
The J100 scholarship is given to 100 JROTC cadets throughout the nation, all chosen based on a variety of criteria, such as leadership, character, citizenship, academics, and physical abilities.
“For our unit in Air Force JROTC, our headquarters JROTC teamed up with headquarters ROTC and they said let’s see if we can get some scholarships to some of our cadets who are worthy. They made 100 scholarships available to the AFJROTC community world wide.” said Chief Master Sergeant (Ret.) Rogerio Garcia.
“It’s a full ride to any school with an AFROTC program. They cover your full tuition, they give you 10k per year allowance for housing, and a monthly stipend that increases every year. School is no issue, you got that paid for, and then you serve four years as an officer on active duty after you finish your four years of ROTC and get your degree.” said Hughes.
There is a bit of a process to even be considered for the J100 scholarship.
“I asked for resumes, I asked for transcripts, I asked for ACT/SAT scores. The resume covers all of your extracurricular activities and whatnot, and then I started talking one on one with those cadets that were interested.” said CMSgt (Ret.) Garcia.
After a worthwhile process of filtering out the cadets to be chosen, Hughes and Walles got some good news.
“Our unit can only nominate two people, well of our size. Out of everybody, the seniors that they asked, they had come together and decided to nominate me and Liam Hughes.” said Walles.
There was much to be proud of due to the amount of people nominated from TWHS.
“We were one of the few units to have two selects come out, and two were submitted from our unit. So we’re two for two.” said CMSgt (Ret.) Garcia.
For such a huge, and exclusive scholarship, there must be a lot to do to get into it. So what did it take?
“We had to wait for the initial round to go through, which me and Liam passed through. Then we had to do a zoom interview with our selection boards; both retired or active duty personnel do the assessment. Everybody gets asked the same questions so it’s confidential. The interview was a good test of what I’ve been through and what it would be like. After that it was just playing the waiting game, waiting for all the interviews to conclude. A week later they officially announced it.” said Walles.
Between Walles and Hughes, there was a great deal of prepping they both had to do.
“I worked extremely hard everyday in school to keep my GPA high, I worked out basically every day to keep my physical score high, showed the dedication, and I allowed other people to help me get through it, because you can’t do it alone.” said Hughes.
More than the commitment there are base guidelines for those nominated, which encourage the chosen cadets to keep up their current merits that got them chosen.
“You’ve got to keep a 2.5 GPA whilst in college, you can’t be failing any of your classes, you have to serve four years, you can’t really go back[on your decision] past your freshman year. You can drop out before your freshman year ends with no obligation or anything leading back to the military. However if you do stay for that sophomore year, and change your mind, you got to pay that back somehow, possibly through military service, enlisted. So stick with it. You’re gonna be serving anyway might as well do it as an officer.” said Hughes.
Even at 18 years old, this sounds like a very tough choice and commitment for these nominees. However, Hughes and Walles have been more than prepared for this decision.
“I saw a kid named Spencer Snarr, a senior last year, walk across stage, and whenever they called his name out, congratulated him for receiving a full ride J100 scholarship. I’m not even kidding when I saw him walk across the stage I was like ‘Dang that needs to be me.’” said Hughes.
“I sent them[CMSgt (Ret.) Garcia and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Chris McMartin] a message a year ago saying I was interested. I always had it on my mind that it was something I wanted to do. To protect the country, stand for something I believe in, and leave a legacy behind, something I could talk about forever afterwards.” said Hughes.
“I’ve wanted to commission for my whole high school life. I knew that it could give me incredible opportunities.” said Walles.
For the cadets, their gratitude for the scholarship remains, and they continue to look towards their goals and why they wanted this in the first place.
“I am so blessed to be given the opportunity to get this scholarship,” said Walles.
“I wanted to bless my parents, not let them pay for college and at the same time do something for myself and know that I did it and that it was worthwhile and it was worth something to me, something meaningful.” said Hughes.
Their achievements is something that not only the cadets should be proud of, but the school and AFJROTC too. Having fostered an environment that created budding leaders like Hughes and Walles is rare, and they are sure to capitalize on those achievements for their incoming future.
