NEWARK, N.J. –U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) today addressed over 600 New Jersey students and their parents at the annual Service Academy Information Day that he hosts with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) at Seton Hall University. The event offers an overview of the service academies, their admission processes, and information on ROTC scholarship programs. Attendees had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

 

A recent study authored by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic analyzed 25 years of Congressional nominations data and found that while only about 20 percent of current lawmakers’ service academy nominees are female, Booker leads the Senate with the highest proportion (40 percent) of female nominations—roughly double.  

 

The deadline to apply for a service academy nomination from Sen. Booker for the fall of 2020 is October 18, 2019. More information can be found here.  

 

An excerpt from Booker’s remarks:

 

“You are all here today because you have a keen interest not just in exceling academically and intellectually, but in devoting yourselves to the service of this nation. Our nation’s service academies do not just distinguish themselves on the basis of their rigorous academics, talented faculty or intellectual communities, but because of their commitment to what it means to serve.

 

“Throughout American history ordinary people have acted with extraordinary courage to make our country a better place. I owe who I am today not just to the people I learned about in school but also because of generations of unsung heroes, ordinary Americans whose names don’t show up in textbooks but whose actions have shaped the course of American history. These people weren’t celebrities, they weren’t rich or powerful, but they did what they could, with what they had, and they helped bend the arc of the moral universe.

 

“My parents taught me that I couldn’t pay these heroes back for their service, I could only pay it forward. That’s what I’ve tried to do in my career thus far, and by applying to and hopefully enrolling in a service academy, that’s what you all are committing to do. I am so impressed with you all, you have started the work that takes so many people their whole lives to figure out—how to pay it forward.”