TRAVIS WITTICK: USAFA CLASS OF 2007 GRADUATE AND FOUNDER OF ACADEMY ENDEAVORS

Academy Endeavors are experts at getting young people into Academies. But the story of becoming an expert isn’t pretty.

The truth is, when I was an applicant, I didn’t get a Congressional nomination successfully. In fact, the day before my Congressional interview, I was rude to my ALO, and it backfired – my ALO’s spouse was on the interview panel!

I didn’t seek help with essays. I procrastinated like I did in my English AP class, and submitted the best product at the last minute. I didn’t know what “good” could look like.

I didn’t seek leadership positions outside of sports. Luckily, my high school had a great football team, so late in the process, I was given a Superintendent’s nomination as a blue chip athlete. This experience opened my eyes to the preferential treatment of athletes, which is why we work with clients that have athletic skill to see if they can get recruited.

I didn’t submit my application early so that I’d have plenty of time for DODMERB. In fact, I was put on a medical waiver 1 month before Basic because I didn’t have my medical records in order. When I saw an orthopedist for my wrist evaluation, the doctor cleared me; otherwise, I would’ve been medically disqualfied and forced to re-apply.

I didn’t write down my interview answers and practice them beforehand. Instead, I winged it and thought my charisma would be good enough.

Almost everything we tell young people today is because we made mistakes 15 years ago, learned from it, and want to give away what we’ve learned.

We learned the hard way, benefited greatly from our Academy experience, and now want to ensure young people are given the best chance to do it the right way.

This definition of “expert” is so true:

“Expert: A person who made all the mistakes possible in a very narrow field.” Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner