Could I be considered for an appointment to NAPS?

NAPS05mom
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:50:07 +0000

Great attitude, Napster11. I have to chime in as a mom of a former Napster and now graduate of USNA. My daughter did NAPS despite having a NROTC scholarship to her second choice school etc. etc. She had a nomination and also got put in the advanced classes. She was actually rejected initially, appealed the decision and upon showing good cause was offered NAPS. There are as many reasons as students at NAPS and though initially less than thrilled (as she thought, at 18, she knew everything and was ready to go straight to the yard) she would tell you now (and realized it pretty quickly) how valuable the NAPS year was to her. During that year, my very mature daughter truly grew up. She learned to be away from home, learned about military regs, and walked into USNA feeling confident and with a couple hundred friends who had her back. She alo was able to validate out of many classes and did very well there. She was part of the brigade leadership her firstie year as well. Her first year out in the fleet, she won the Naval Leadership award. So, while whistle pig might want to believe that it is somehow some lesser group of people, or something to not be fully proud of, nor appreciated, it is something that, I guess, unless you go through it, you don’t know how beneficial it is. She is now one of the youngest attending the Naval Post-Graduate School in engineering with a great path already determined and interviewed for while at the Academy. So, while this sounds braggy and I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking her years on the yard were easy, the NAPS route is something to strongly consider. At 18, a year seems like forever. It flies by and means nothing in the big picture and might end up providing you with much more than you could ever imagine.