Los Fresnos High School NJROTC Continues a Tradition of Excellence

Los Fresnos High School NJROTC continues the tradition of excellence. This year, we have another appointment to the Military Academy. In the ten years of existence of the program at the High School, Andrea Mallea will become the 7th cadet appointed to one of our service academies. What an honor.

Cadet Mallea began the application process for admission into the United States Military Academy (West Point) in December of 2011. Opening an account to apply for the summer leadership seminar hosted at the academy was the initial step in the process for her, which was promptly met with rejection. However, this was not a deterrent for Cadet Mallea, through the achievement of higher scores in both the SAT and ACT as well as AP classes; she was given the opportunity to apply to the military academy as a candidate.

Throughout the year and much nagging from Chief Marquez (NJROTC Instructor at Los Fresnos) she diligently took the appropriate classes and extra-curricular activities to become a more competitive candidate. Not only was the process demanding emotionally and physically, it served as an opportunity to help Cadet Mallea grow as a more well-rounded and driven person. In October of 2012, all of the paper work, essays, transcripts, and evaluations had been submitted and all there was left to do was wait, for four grueling months. Finally, yesterday the day had come. Andrea had just gotten out of ROTC practice when her father met her with a package; the official appointment to the Military Academy that she had dreamed about for years had arrived.

Cadet Mallea has been working at getting appointed to West Point since her freshman year of high school. She has had leadership positions in NJROTC, Forensics (in which she has gained official membership of the National Forensics League), HOSA, and various community outreach programs. She has taken a total of ten AP and college level courses, and has doubled up on core classes two out of four years. Cadet Mallea will be graduating having completed hundreds of community service hours. The projects she has completed for the community have included campaigns against cyber-bullying as well as organizing clothing drives for the homeless during the harsh winter months in Northern California.

Andrea will be the first of her family to attend college and be in the military. She is a first generation American to parents from Mexico and Chile respectively. A degree in Mechanical Engineer is her next academic goal.

On June 27th, 2013 Cadet Andrea Mallea will report to West Point for the 6 week training program that precipitates the scholastic year for freshmen at the Academy. She has equal amounts of nervousness and excitement. Upon accepting the offer to The United States Military Academy at West Point, Andrea accepted a fully-funded scholarship that includes all tuition, room, board, books, uniforms, medical and dental care, training costs and pay, and is valued at over $480,000.