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Meng Announces Queens Students Accepted to the U.S. Service Academies

July 1, 2015

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) announced that seven local students from Queens have been accepted to the United States Service Academies after the Congresswoman nominated them to attend the prestigious institutions.

The academies consist of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York; and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut.

The students and the academies they will attend include:

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All will begin attending the academies this summer.

The elite institutions prepare college-age Americans to be officers of the U.S. uniformed services. After four years of study, service academy graduates become commissioned as officers in the active or reserve components of the U.S. military or merchant marine for a minimum of five years.

Students seeking to attend the nation's service academies are required to be nominated by their Member of Congress. The institutions evaluate all the nominations received by Members of Congress from across the nation, and then decide which nominees to accept.

Students nominated by Meng compete against students from throughout the country and must meet the highly competitive educational, physical and extracurricular standards set by the individual institutions. Meng is assisted in the nomination process by her Academy Review Board, a panel of local community leaders.

This is the second round of students that the sophomore Congresswoman has nominated to the academies. Her first was last year when she was a freshman Member of Congress. The seven students selected this year were chosen from the twenty that Meng nominated. A total of 33 students applied.

"I am honored to congratulate these seven exceptional students," said Meng. "All are outstanding individuals who will be future military leaders of our country. I have no doubt that they'll make Queens and the nation proud."

To congratulate the students, Meng hosted a reception for them and their families at her new Northeast Queens office in Flushing. She also presented each student with a certificate of Congressional recognition.

This fall, Meng plans to once again sponsor "U.S. Service Academy Information Night" for Queens students who are interested in applying to the U.S. Service Academies. The day and location will be announced in the coming months. Last year, Meng hosted the event in October at Forest Hills High School.