Difficult Counselors + AFROTC Papers

L

Lahey

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Aug 23, 2015
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Greetings all,

I am a type 7, 4 yr AFROTC Scholarship recipient and a high school senior. We will be having an awards ceremony and id like to be recognized, but my counselors are being very difficult about it.

Obviously this is a very large achievement for me, and a culmination of my all my high school efforts, so a 1-2 minute speech and a big check presentation would have been very nice to have. When I went in to speak to them today, the counselors told me that there can be NO big check presentation and NO speech giving during the event and sternly told me return to class. They told me that if they did this they would be there for 70 hours. On top of this, they said that if I even wanted to be recognized I would have to provide hard copy proof that I was in fact a AFROTC scholarship recipient and they would "think about" mentioning my 3rd party offer...


I was pretty disgruntled after this and I am wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and what happened of it. Also, where can I find a "hardcopy proof" of my scholarship? I received my award certificate in the mail from Army ROTC but nothing from Air Force.

Thanks for your help!
 
That is very disappointing. We had an AF officer show up for at my DS's school in May of 2015, and all the faculty stood up for my DS's friend who got a 4 year to UC Berkeley. The AF officer had only recently commissioned himself and did an excellent job.

On the documentation, can you do a print screen from your USAFA portal?
 
Guidance counselors - Do not even get me STARTED! They were the biggest obstacle to every Application we have worked on! However you have to be careful about burning your bridges, especially if you have younger siblings still in the system. In our case we had one younger sibbling , who also needed to go back to guidance a year later after graduation, to get stuff filled out for Plan C college apps.

If possible Get An ROTC officer to contact the Principal, as if the request is coming straight from them and you are not aware. If you don't care about burning bridges ask your Parents to talk to the Principal. What guidance fails to realize, but principals sometimes do, is that this makes them look good. Stats that help them look good will help your cause. if handled tactfully sometimes parents can go around them to the principal without burning bridges. We had a Fantastic Vice -principal who managed to convey the message "you will help these people when they need it" without causing guidance to lose face.

Remember you get more flies with honey. Be nice even if you don't feel it.
 
gokings814 said:
That is very disappointing. We had an AF officer show up for at my DS's school in May of 2015, and all the faculty stood up for my DS's friend who got a 4 year to UC Berkeley. The AF officer had only recently commissioned himself and did an excellent job.

On the documentation, can you do a print screen from your USAFA portal?
Click to expand...

If you do a Screen print, save it in PDF and send to Kinkos or printers and get a real good Color Copy on Card stock, then buy a nice diploma type folder to put it in.....Nothing like a little Marketing!
 
Lahey - to get a formal document indicating you are an AFROTC scholarship recipient contact a resource that gave you the scholarship. Email or call them and ask them to send you something on letterhead. The guidance from LDH above should work too.

We ran into the same problem with no 3rd party scholarship recognition in a midwest HS District with 7 large high schools. Our school has a moderate anti military 'feel' though. We chose to not pursue it as all relevant friends and teachers knew of the scholarship and recognition wasn't important to her... or so she said.

Do you want it and burn bridges? - Get hold of the last few years of awards ceremony hand outs to see if other 3rd Party Scholarships were included like neighborhood associations, middle school PTO's if they are a different school, church groups, ....... Provide them the list of other 3rd Party scholarships recognized and request to be recognized.
 
DS was selected for a NROTC MO scholarship and essentially had the same experience as the OP. Guidance doesn't want to establish a precedent by allowing outside scholarship presentations.
 
My son's ALO for USAFA will be at the senior awards ceremony, but isn't allowed to say anything. The narrating counselor will simply say something and allow him to shake my boy's hand and give him a certificate or something. Pretty minor for such a major accomplishment. But, having been a high school guidance counselor myself, I do know how long those scholarship award ceremonies are and I don't really know a solution for it. Who's to say one person's scholarship is more important than another? As it is, with nobody speaking, the ceremony takes over 2 hours. If all presenters got to speak, it really would be a marathon. ???????
 
I think it is really a function of the size of the HS. I can get that in a large school that is chock full of high achievers, this can be a marathon. On the other hand, we are in a rural area and so the percentage of scholarship winners is not as great. Consequently, we had one hour award sessions, dominated by the same handful of kids! (It also helped that my DS's counselor was an Army brat)
 
While you are rightly proud of making the cut for a 4 year scholarship and have worked hard for it, I must say: forget it. The most important things you will do in your life you will never get any recognition for. In 60 days high school and those counselors are going to be so far behind, you cannot comprehend it. What is really important is what you do in college with the scholarship, not 2 minutes of small glory forgotten by everybody. What is then more important than the scholarship is what you make of your Air Force career and through it all you will seldom get recognized for your best work. Just the satisfaction of a job well done......it's life. Welcome aboard.
 
Spud said:
While you are rightly proud of making the cut for a 4 year scholarship and have worked hard for it, I must say: forget it. The most important things you will do in your life you will never get any recognition for. In 60 days high school and those counselors are going to be so far behind, you cannot comprehend it. What is really important is what you do in college with the scholarship, not 2 minutes of small glory forgotten by everybody. What is then more important than the scholarship is what you make of your Air Force career and through it all you will seldom get recognized for your best work. Just the satisfaction of a job well done......it's life. Welcome aboard.
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I tend to agree, while I gave advise on how to perhaps get included, (Really just wanting to vent about our guidance counselors, Sorry "boymom73") I nor my son are much on awards, fact is son did not even want his appointments mentioned but it meant to much to Dad and Grandma. Truth of the matter is if you read "your son/Daughter went where?" thread you will see that only one or two people there will even recognize the significance. All most are going to hear is "Air Force" and say oh he is joining the Air Force instead of going to college..what a waste.
 
This seems to be a common theme. My DD also goes to a very small charter school, 44 seniors, and her ALO would like to come to the senior awards ceremony, but will not be allowed. The college counselor is all for it, but the leadership staff is against outsiders presenting. My DD is the first appointee to any service academy in the school's history and it really speaks to the caliber of the school, but since it's never been done in the past, it can't be done. I am a bit surprised, as it is a huge positive for the school, however, I can see their side of of it to. Perhaps things will change in the future now that they have their first appointee. Congratulations to all those who received appointments, and know that we are proud of all of you and thank you for your willingness to serve.
 
Capt MJ said:
"Dear Head of School System (state, district, whatever),

I am a senior at Acme High, in Acmevillle, and I wanted to express my appreciation for the quality of education I received there over the last X years. In particular, I wanted to single out Ms. Jones and Mr. Smith, as teachers who were particularly (good things), and the AP program....(whatever)

The Acme education was a critical building block in my successful two-year campaign to obtain an appointment to USXA, Class of 2020, which required me to compete against the top scholar-athletes in our state for a nomination. Congressman Z chose me to receive his nomination, and the competitive process continued. Over ?? thousand applications are received annually at USXA, with a class of approximately 1200 successfully obtaining an appointment. I have attached a class profile from the Class of 2019, which shows the caliber of students on a national level attending USXA. I have also included a copy of (maybe something from USXA.edu that talks about competition, caliber of applicants, something impressive) to illuminate the special opportunity I am being offered.

I am humbled and honored to receive an appointment to a prestigious service academy, where my education will be provided to me at an estimated cost of $____, and I will have the honor of serving our country immediately after graduation as a commissioned officer in the (Service.)

I was required to have top-tier grades in demanding classes, deliver impressive test scores, demonstrate athletic ability, leadership and community involvement, pass a physical strength test, and excel in ___ interviews, to compete for my nomination and then for an appointment. My Acme education was a large contributor, and I am grateful.

As the first student at Acme to receive one of these highly-sought after appointments/as one of the handful of students in our state to..., I was saddened to learn that Acme does not plan to acknowledge this accomplishment at our awards ceremony on (date.) I understand that school policy does not allow it, but sending a student to a Service Academy reflects positively on Acme's quality of education, and can serve as an inspiration to other students to apply for this extraordinary opportunity. I think the singular value of this appointment, and the fact it leads to service to the nation, after a grueling competitive process, would merit consideration for an exception. Would you be willing to reconsider this policy?

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Student Appointee"




Just a thought. It might make you/parents feel better, and I think there is always power in the written word. For an evil twist, copy the Senator or Congressmen from whom nomination(s) were received (if applicable).
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Sample letter RE Awards Ceremonies. Please be sure to click and expand Just bringing this over from another Thread thought it fit here. Love the CC to Senator and Congressman..
 
Thanks... I did this all on iPhone, and I looked for this thread to copy it overgrow Your Son/Daughter Goes Where, but couldn't find it first pass.

If having this recognition is important, then why not go after it in a respectful way to those in a position to understand policies can evolve.
 
I'm a Navy vet, and I've been teaching now for 24 years. My DS and one of his closest friends both received 4 yr NROTC scholarships, with my son an ISR awardee to RPI, and his buddy to Ohio St. It took ZERO effort on the part of our guidance counselors, save for their secretary typing an extra line in the program. They were the first NROTC scholarship winners in all the time I have worked in our district, and it has sparked an interest in pursuing these type of goals with a number of our students. http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php?gallery/albums/ds-scholarship-awards-ceremony.16/ We have had a number of Army and Air Force ROTC winners in the past, as well as students attending various academies, and all have been recognized for their awards.

(Full disclosure, the district where I teach has taken measures to reduce the amount of time spent at our actual graduation ceremony. Approximately two weeks before graduation, we hold "Scholarship Night" at the nearby university branch, where everyone is awarded all of the local scholarships that they have earned. The day before graduation [which then dovetails into graduation rehearsal] we have an "Honors Assembly" where we give out academic letters, department awards, as well as the speech that was given by Chief Washington. This entire ceremony takes about 90 minutes, and as a result, graduation is barely an hour in length.)

I like the idea of the letter above, as it is a way to take the "high road." To me, as an educator, these awards are a great way to open up whole new avenues of achieving a college education for some of our students. I think by not recognizing your achievements, your school district is doing you a disservice, as well as limiting exposure of this wonderful avenue that you (and subsequent students in your school) pursued (may pursue.) It isn't an opportunity for you to gloat at all. It is an opportunity to demonstrate how hard you worked to achieve your goals thus far, and that you've made a conscious decision to defend the Constitution, as well as the vary lives of those people sitting along side you at graduation.

I wish you best of luck with your studies, as well as getting the recognition you so richly deserve.
 
Just my 2 cents in an election year get more bang for that "big check' moment and contact your Congressional office ask the scheduler if when the representative will be in town if you can have a photo opp with them mock presenting you with your award folio and in this case both the Army and AF the scheduler will know what event is best fit for that as well as may also want to coordinate local media. A best idea to even make it more likely to get press and a more likely for speech is to contact the coordinators for all service ROTC and Service Academies to show your leadership and coordinate with them and the congressional scheduler to have it be a full court Service winners awards program if the scheduler needs you to fully take the lead a great option for a free venue is your Public Library will usually have meeting rooms and are free to reserve. My son is coordinating this for our scholarship/academy kids since he has it easy since he is the Local Office intern for our Congressman who is up for reelection so every thing like this he can fit in to the local area visits the better. And the people there will actually get how hard that 4yr was to get.
 
forumjunkie said:
I tend to agree, while I gave advise on how to perhaps get included, (Really just wanting to vent about our guidance counselors, Sorry "boymom73") I nor my son are much on awards, fact is son did not even want his appointments mentioned but it meant to much to Dad and Grandma. Truth of the matter is if you read "your son/Daughter went where?" thread you will see that only one or two people there will even recognize the significance. All most are going to hear is "Air Force" and say oh he is joining the Air Force instead of going to college..what a waste.
Click to expand...
No offense taken. Some counselors suck. I just wasn't one of them. :) I know that recognition in a smaller school would be much easier than in a larger one, though I do believe that ALL scholarship recipients deserve recognition. I just don't know the solution. Yes, sometimes being the first to receive a particular scholarship will spark an interest in an underclassman and that's a great thing.
 
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