Charting the Course to the Naval Academy: Bradley Glass's Journey and Perseverance

Embark on an extraordinary voyage with Bradley Glass, a Jefferson R-7 School District graduate who navigated his way to the esteemed halls of the United States Naval Academy. Our heart-to-heart on today's episode unravels the tapestry of his journey—from the stirring surprise of his acceptance to the pivotal role our Lego Robotics program played in his development. The raw emotions shared with his mother and the ingenious surprise we planned encapsulate the essence of victory not just for Bradley but for the entire community that supported him.

Together, we unwrap the layers of commitment and strategy necessary for students aspiring to join service academies. You'll get the inside scoop on how early ACT preparation can make a world of difference and why it's crucial to establish a solid support network. Bradley's candid recount of his alternate plans, including Missouri S&T and ROTC scholarships, coupled with the importance of self-advocacy and genuine pursuits, offers a masterclass in tenacity and strategic foresight.

Closing the loop on Bradley's tale, we step into the world of collegiate rowing where he found his place as a coxswain on the Naval Academy rowing team. The euphoria of a second-place finish at the Head of the Charles Regatta is just a sliver of the camaraderie and personal growth experienced within "the brotherhood." As we salute his dedication, we also turn our gaze to the role schools play in molding young minds for the rigorous paths ahead, and the collective joy found in celebrating their triumphs over a well-earned meal and rest. Join us for this exploration of success, where every step is a milestone and every milestone a starting point for the next adventure.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hi, I'm David Howe, superintendent of the Jefferson R7 School District.

Speaker 1: 0:09

It's been an honor for me to start this podcast and video series with some of our alumni and other things we're doing in the district, with this one in particular, bradley Glass. As a parent, I want to stress that it's okay if your child doesn't know exactly what they want to do yet. As a middle school student or as a high school student, really the power of this podcast lies in Bradley's process and his mental approach to things. I think it's so valuable. I encourage every parent and every student in the school district to watch this video, just because Bradley has such a unique approach to things. That is what everybody can benefit from. So again, I want to stress it's okay if they don't know what they want to do yet the students but they can always be working on that. Perseverance is the word I'm going to use with Bradley and he was such a shining example that he was a student and as a young adult. Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Hey, I'm David Howe, superintendent of the Jefferson R7, and I'm joined by a really special guest, somebody that's really impersonal and close to us, as one of our graduates, bradley Glass. Bradley, thanks for joining us. Bradley's currently in the United States Naval Academy, and this was not something that happened overnight, and that's kind of the story we want to share today. I'm going to start with kind of the day that you found out. I think I kind of go back and help me here. You and Miss Runsey and I kind of knew and we wanted to go surprise your mom. Yes, how awesome was that day.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Yeah, it was a great experience. I remember very specifically I was in weightlifting class and I was in there and I believe it was you called me down and you're like, hey, you're going to get a phone call here soon. I was like, okay, I guess we're rolling with this. Sure enough, congressman Smith gave me a phone call and he said would you like to go to the Naval Academy? And I was like absolutely. And so then I know that you were just ecstatic about it and I mean, I was almost in disbelief. The emotions were running so high that they almost weren't running at all. And then we went down to Platten to surprise my mom.

Speaker 1: 2:41

I'm going to back up. So we're like so your mom has worked for the district for a long time and, with just the utmost respect everybody has for your mom, and Miss Runsey and I were like we want to go down and watch this. Okay, so we follow you down. We go sit in the corner and your mom walks in. She's looking at us. Then she sees you and kind of take it from there.

Speaker 2: 3:02

Yeah, and I think that as soon as she saw me and my like wicked grin, she kind of knew, because it had been the culmination of a lot of time, a lot of hard work, and at that point I was already into the military Academy at West Point, but my ultimate goal was to make it into the Naval Academy. And so whenever she saw that, I think she kind of knew that that goal had, at that morning, been achieved. And it was a crazy feeling I get a little choked up now thinking about it so Miss.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Runsey and I went to the corner and we're taking pictures and video and all that and I look over at her and we're tears are just coming down our face and we kind of said, you're crying, I'm crying, that whole saying and what a great day. Because it's not just you know. I don't want to short circuit what others are doing to get into colleges, but it's a process. Yes, it is truly a process. And before we get on that path as well, representative Smith did note publicly at that time that you were the first one under his watch that actually got accepted to two academies. You got accepted to both the Army and the Navy, which is a tremendous compliment itself. So let's that doesn't happen overnight.

Speaker 1: 4:19

This part of the podcast and is really about for families and students are looking to go this route or to do something. This you can't just wake up one day and want to do it, and I'm going to segue back just a little bit. You're always a little bit ahead of the game, just in your communication with adults. You were also instrumental asking our Lego Robotics program Graham up as six and seventh grader. Tell us a little bit about that summer when we did our first late. We saw the video we'll share along with oh wow.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Yes. So the Lego Robotics was definitely a fun opportunity that Jefferson High School kind of presented myself and a group of individuals with, and it was something that I'd always kind of been interested in the like the robotics side of it, but also the creativity and having something that most middle school and high school students are familiar with being Legos. It's much easier to build a robot with something like that instead of just trying to go straight into like metal and screws and drills and all that stuff which is a more costly and be like a little bit more unforgiving if you make a mistake with your design or encounter any engineering flaws. So the Lego side of it was very it was a unique experience because we were kind of figuring out the code as we went learning the computer part. We had different students back in school.

Speaker 2: 6:03

We had different students were definitely more skilled in certain areas than others, but we were able to use that as a team to come up with who is the best builder, who is the best coder, who is the best at making a presentable engineering notebook to show in the competitions to the judges. And ultimately we did end up competing as a team and we didn't win the thing which is kind of expected in your first year of competing in something like that but we definitely had a lot of good takeaways from it and it was something that I feel like students I certainly did can use to kind of harbor their engineering, their communication skills and interests and really kind of take a step forward and figure out, like what they want to do in terms of their further education.

Speaker 1: 6:51

And I'll go back to that point too. I know from Ari and looking at the program was you guys came in the summer for a couple years but then it is really kind of exploded through our district the STEM and everything in different avenues, but you guys did become the first. I think it's sometimes difficult to small school. You were in cross country, you were in band, you were in leadership stuff, so we couldn't. It was difficult for us to have a robotics team if we didn't embed it into the school day.

Speaker 1: 7:20

So we actually had a fifth hour like our fifth hour generally was kind of that time. We tried to butt it up against the lunch shift so they had extra time to work in there but to commit to doing that. But it also was two years out. You guys were kind of building that momentum and so Bradley was kind of the first, the first group that did it and also kind of on our first high school robotics team and I had another story I'll share about. Bradley is, I think you were in seventh grade and there was some sort of event at the Fox service center, a character thing, and we just had the best time with Bradley and he's so well spoken you can already sense it Like he's intelligent but he speaks well and he really just kind of commanded everybody's attention as a seventh grader table. I mean, that's sincerely. I smile because I have such vivid and great memories of that. But you've always kind of been on top of it. Do you remember what that was? Even that's been a while.

Speaker 2: 8:10

Yes, yeah, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what was like talked about in some of those things.

Speaker 1: 8:18

I think you did make a decision. We're going to Chick-fil-A after. We ran by Chick-fil-A and had a great meal, so okay. So at what point did you feel like that the Naval Academy, a military Academy, army was something in your future?

Speaker 2: 8:37

Yeah, I would definitely say that at the beginning of high school I was bouncing around between multiple areas of service really.

Speaker 2: 8:51

So at first I was like, oh, I want to be an engineer and do this so that way I could help people. Oh, I want to be a doctor so I can do this, and I had kind of thought about the idea, especially with Brendan Reese, having gone before me and doing kind of the same things. Then he ended up at the Air Force Academy and is now doing great things in flight school. So I probably got serious about it the summer going into junior year because I was able to attend the Missouri Scholars Academy and I was a very transformative experience with a lot of other like-minded individuals who really just shaped the way that I write, the way that I think, and just brought me a bunch of new experiences. And there were a couple other guys there from different schools, some out towards like Columbia, kansas City area, and some of them had already kind of committed to that and they're like you know, I want to go to like one of these service academies and I kind of-.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Hopefully nobody's tardy.

Speaker 2: 10:05

I kind of thought about that after the program had concluded and going into junior year. I was like, okay, I'm going to make this happen and from there kind of set out on my own of what do I need to do to get there. And that's whenever you truly realize that it is a little daunting. But it's possible at the end of the day if you kind of just decide then and there and you make it a goal.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I there on your end, you were doing a ton. How important is it for the family and I do this as a sort of promotion To reach out to the school principal and counselor and say this is something we're taking very seriously.

Speaker 2: 10:46

Oh, yes, I think it's. It's almost imperative that that happens. It's definitely a like Multi-level effort in terms of getting there. I mean, it takes a lot in the student, but it also um really helps to have a supportive, understanding family, as well as a High school guidance counselor, teachers like this whole support network that you can rely off of, whether it's like recommendations, questions, communication between some of these third parties that you have to deal with, whether it's like medical stuff, paperwork like I had to Get certain items like stamped and approved from certain people that I never knew existed, and doing that was Kind of stressful in itself because I'd have to, like run out to Hillsborough or something like a random Tuesday and get something signed and it was. It was just crazy, especially with Just the timeline of it being also pretty quick as soon as you start it up.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Yeah, and I don't think it's really the school, what, what I really comes down to. And representative Smith's office, donna Hickam, specifically for both of our Students have gone on to one of the academies yourself and Brendan. They kind of take over and make sure they really do a great job of working with the families and saying this is the path and the process that needs to be done. And then we also work with them to make sure they have everything that the student would need, because this is not just simply like I'm just gonna throw my application in and see what happens. There's there's an extensive process to it.

Speaker 1: 12:28

Yes, and I can't emphasize enough, and you were great, brendan was great. This is again, if you're serious about it, the earlier the better, even if it's just a thought. You're fresh from near that. Hey, I think, put that on the school's radar because you don't want to get you know Two weeks in your junior year or two weeks in your senior year, specifically say I want to do that when things that could have been. It just presents a better package to the academies, if that makes sense. That's just my opinion. I'm not saying you wouldn't be denied entering that late, but the earlier the better in my opinion, just so everybody knows what's expected, because there's certain letters that have to be written and signed off on and and notarized and all that good stuff. But we learn a lot through Brendan, so your process for us was much easier and you made it made it easy. How important is the Standardized test, like an ACT In this part of the country, that our students take, how important was that process and how's that process for you?

Speaker 2: 13:30

Yeah, I'd say it's definitely pretty important and I feel like for a lot of schools is kind of gotten to be a little bit of a bigger deal. I was pretty fortunate and that I've always been Naturally gifted at standardized test taking, but I still did have to study and I'd say that that's the biggest thing. Whether you want to go down like the service academy route or you're simply trying to get a scholarship at like a state school, private school, or even get into something like the a plus program, and you need a certain score for that is whether you are or aren't a a Naturally gifted standardized test taker. There are steps that you can take to definitely Get better and I mean, not everyone's gonna get, you know, a 34, 36 or something crazy, but at the end of the day you can definitely force yourself to see score improvements by simply getting one of the Test books out there that provide problems and like step-by-steps on how to kind of get your mind in the zone of the standardized test as well, as there's a lot of free resources out there and you just got to look for it and I'd say like that's the biggest thing for standardized testing is putting in the time.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Like often people will get frustrated if they're not Seeing these score increases, like maybe the second or third time that they've taken it. But if you sit down and you ask them like, hey, being completely honest, like how many hours per week Did you put in for this? Did you even crack open like a practice test or things like that, and if the answer is no or not a lot, then the answer kind of reveals itself with that. But if you do put in the hours, even if it's not huge, I can almost like promise that someone should see at least a little bit of a score increase. And, depending on what your goal is, it just takes more and more time and that's why I think again, starting earlier it's more beneficial because then you have that time.

Speaker 1: 15:25

If you need to take a second test and then see where you're at and then take a third and just keep trying to climb, yeah, our data shows us that the early you take it, it's not even so much about the performance, it's just so the so the student can see the whole process do it a couple times. So the third time what I noticed by the time our ACT prep was really, I think, up and running about two years in A time those freshmen had taken a practice test in a sophomore a time they had juniors I felt no stress in the building. The first year or two we gave you felt a lot of stress. It was just almost like, well, it's, it's just another day and we understand how to take the test. And our teachers do a great job putting that in there, in there, at daily curriculum projects and everything they do. We take it very seriously.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Not that we Live and die by a test score, but in your case and a lot of other students sometimes, you know, for you getting into service Academy is a big deal, sometimes a student getting from 23 to 24, so they can get an extra $2,000 a year in a scholarship and I think that's where it really pays off if you look at that system. So thank you for sharing that. I will say this. I think I remember this, but you did have a backup plan in case the Naval Academy or the Academy's did not work out.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Yes.

Speaker 1: 16:37

I vaguely remember this being Missouri S&T or an engineering school, was that kind of along those lines?

Speaker 2: 16:42

Um, it was. The University of Missouri was definitely there. I applied for, like the ROTC scholarships as well, so that was an option. And then simply just going off of the test scores and realizing that, like the work to get there, had it not paid off, would have paid other dividends in terms of having, like a like near free state school experience and something that would have allowed me to either reapply, pursue the ROTC route or just simply find ways to pursue my interests in other areas that would have maybe been outside the military. I love that.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Like I said, riley was one of those exceptional just kind of got the whole process. It wasn't like I'm going here and didn't have plan B. There was always like in cases doesn't happen, in cases doesn't happen. I think that's so important because if you do such you, there's no guarantees you're getting into an Academy. And I think one thing is you do have to have that appointment by a state Representative or a US representative from the state of Missouri in our case. I'm kind of stumbling around my words here but you do have to have an appointment. It doesn't. You don't just apply and get in. There's a lot to it.

Speaker 1: 17:57

But you did an amazing job of looking at the whole picture and I really encourage our families and kids to do that. Another thing I saw your mom I guess it was yesterday and we talked about you looking forward to coming in and doing the podcast and everything. There's something that keeps kind of digging at me when I work with kids, students, that kind of hit those exceptional things, and that is the personal ownership in this. And your mom made the comment I said that was a tough process. She said, well, bradley did everything. So I think kind of share your mindset of maybe not relying on others and doing that investigation.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Yes, I would say that the biggest thing a student can do and I still do this now while I'm in school is advocate for themselves. At the end of the day, there will be this support network out there, but you have to find it. And so once you have this idea whether it's an academic pursuit or you have a scholarship that you want to go for or a team that you want to go for it doesn't just have to be within school. But I feel like a lot of high schoolers get so caught up in everything that's going on that they're always afraid of hearing no or that final stop in the road. And, in my opinion, you've got to picture yourself driving a Jeep and going off-road and around that roadblock. You just got to keep going. You got to find a way.

Speaker 2: 19:34

And so whenever I was setting these goals and stuff, I was like OK, here's a deadline for this. I want to try and have it done at least a week done, or at least done a week prior to that deadline. And how am I going to do that with the time that I have here? And just setting out these goals and stuff and planning it out in just one step at a time At the end of the day, if you could see 1% of progress after the day was done, then you know that you were one step closer to that and I think that seeing that progress helps, because there were some days where nothing would get done.

Speaker 2: 20:10

You wouldn't get an answer back from something that you needed an answer from. Maybe you were worried about a certain class that day and you had a big test and it just didn't go the way you wanted to, and that can be frustrating. But at the end of the day, if you advocate for yourself and you seek to find these answers and to find someone that's going to help you and to get things done, it's amazing how things for the most part go how you want them to go. And again, there are some things that are just up to chance and it may not happen the way exactly you see it happening, but at the end of the day, you're going to be so much further than you would have been had you just sat there and thought I don't know if I can do this or I just don't know how to do it. But if you seek that out and if you find a way, you're often going to find yourself so much more mature, so much just in a better standing.

Speaker 1: 21:03

From where you started, I'm going to not stop the podcast, but if you're listening, you need to go back and listen to that again. That was unbelievable, because that's really we can talk about everything we offer to school. But if you have that internal drive and again I can't express enough, this is what I see. I've seen him, bradley, and really Brendan Reese as well Like just this whole process. It's not just they do all these things, but the ownership there on your end was and really that's what I've always believed about schools is that we have all these programs and stuff, but it doesn't guarantee success. The student has to own it. So, if you take a moment, go back and listen to that again. So I'm going to summarize what you just said.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I love the word advocate for yourself, but also it's not just enough, like sometimes we say don't quit, but you're talking about writing in those goals down and whether it be a small goal and saying I accomplished this small goal today, my 1% towards the 100% I want to get to. I may be paraphrasing there a little bit, but did you find victories almost every day? Yes, yeah, and even the failures. I love the part about it's OK to hear no every once in a while, because that may not be really where you need to be doing, but I go back to your planning. If the academies didn't work out, I really felt like you had planned ABC and I even part of that to hear you even had ROTC opportunities at a university to still kind of stay in line with that. I think that is a huge. If we don't do anything else today, in your parent or child, you can go back and listen to that.

Speaker 1: 22:45

That was absolutely phenomenal. Is there anything else? Large school versus small school? So we're a small school. You were involved. How important were those other activities? Band, cross country student council, leadership opportunities, robotics how important is that?

Speaker 2: 23:06

I would say that the most important thing is to do things that you're genuinely passionate about, and again, this is beyond service academies. This goes for any goal that you have. It's like filling up a resume with a bunch of fluff and activities that are really quite meaningless to what you did and how you did, but just listing them. That is not going to be beneficial for you as a person and you as an applicant to whatever it may be. But things like band I genuinely enjoyed. We have such a good program here that really harbored some of my interest and allowed me to be a leader, allowed me to express creativity and certain skills across country speaks for itself. You got to like running, but I liked running and it's definitely helped my fitness to where I'm at now and things like fitness tests and just genuinely enjoying working out and having that drive too. I know I think you and a couple others mentioned seeing how much I've gotten a little bigger here too.

Speaker 1: 24:13

Because I definitely had to. You look like you take somebody out now, yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:16

I definitely had to gain a little bit of weight and work out in other areas too, besides just running and being skinny. But just having those ways to pursue your fitness, pursue your health, pursue your interests, that's the biggest thing that I think you can look for in an extracurricular, because not everybody's background is going to look the same in terms of extracurricular, and that's how it should be. If you can speak to someone about what you're truly, genuinely interested in and here's how you did in those things you're going to be so much more accomplished and well-rounded in terms of what you're doing and where you want to go, and I think that would help you the most.

Speaker 1: 25:00

I'm gonna stop again here. The word passion. This is phenomenal, like I. That was a great answer and I think I'll go back to a time for me personally and I'm hoping to summarize what you're saying that I talked to somebody once early on in education and Somebody he said this gentleman was older in his career and had a very distinguished, successful career. And somebody he said we know I was younger. People told me I'm gonna burn myself out. He goes this is my passion. He said I feel like I've never worked a day in my life. This is what I want to do and if and I think I'm sensing that from you Do the activities, not about what you should be doing, but if you find what you're doing, that's when things really start to happen. That was a phenomenal answer. Again, you might want to go back and rewind that.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Anything else we want to cover before we kind of segue a little bit into the military and I will say the military discussion, a military Academy discussion for Bradley and I. He does have to be careful about what he says and we just want to get that out there up front. So if he says I can't answer that, that's his duty. But I'm also trying to ask questions where he doesn't have to worry about that. So if I fail, I'll apologize right now. Okay, so part of the process is is that once you're accepted and so it really the military experience is sort of like a four-year college? Yes, okay. So if you think about it like a college student, there's just the military attachment to it. However, before you go in the fall, you actually Become a soldier in our military through basic training in the summer. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 26:43

Yes, yeah, it's in Annapolis and it's the. The seven weeks prior to the start of the school year is kind of like your indoctrination period and it's a lot of fun. It's pretty hot, it's very hot in the summer, but it really kind of forges the, the bonds and the skills that you need to carry forward and my experience was pretty positive with it and there's you learn so much about yourself in that time period, which is why I think I enjoyed it so much, because I already kind of thought that I knew who I was and Like what I was about going into it, and then some of that changes, but then a lot of it strengthened, going forwards and I I truly enjoyed it in terms of making me a better person and like prepared for what was to come.

Speaker 1: 27:41

So I'm gonna segue a little bit back to earlier conversation. It's no secret You've had an interest in engineering and I, we talked, and so you can tell me kind of what your career path is looking at as far as like majors. Yes, yeah, so go ahead and tell me, because it is kind of an interesting combination of majors.

Speaker 2: 27:57

Yes, so at the end of the day, I'm taking a lot of engineering core classes, but I ultimately chose political science as my major, simply because I've always had a lot of passions and reading and writing as well. I I know that while she was here, miss Boyer Really kind of helped some of my writing abilities as well as like entering some of my works in competitions and just really exploring, like how to Write, whether it's for a paper, whether it's creative writing and things like that. So Whenever I was there, I kind of chose political science as a way to further that. But keep me Interested in the real world, like what's going on around us, what's gonna shape, like our careers and things like that, and also the unique fact that by choosing a major like a political science, english, history, some of those majors we have to take language classes, and so I've chose German, which has been a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 29:02

I'm not the best at speaking it, but my reading and writing has definitely improved, especially since this past summer. One of my trainings was going to Munich for three weeks to study and that was an awesome time and which I really felt like. I was fully immersed in the culture over there, as well as the ability to take classes every day and kind of Further myself along with the language. So a great opportunity there. It's just a little weird being a political science major that has to take thermodynamics as well and calculus three and some of these other courses which were definitely a struggle. It's not easy, but it is nice knowing that in the classes that are related to my major I've been able to perform well so far.

Speaker 1: 29:51

So if you're keeping track at home. Political science major, engineering minor and a German minor.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Yeah, not a true engineering minor but in terms of the whole core curriculum, it comes out yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:05

So how did those? How did the? How did your time at Jefferson prepare you for those engineering courses? And you know, again going back to be a self-advocate, you working with teachers to talk about the different types of writing With your staff that's again that self-advocacy and taking and making sure you're putting yourself in a position to be successful. But in general, how did the? How did those type of courses? Here we didn't have engineering, but we had advanced math. We had the college credit program. How did that prepare you for the Naval Academy?

Speaker 2: 30:35

Yes, so definitely trying to get on the Highest math classes available to you is going to be pretty important, because I took calculus one In my senior year here and that allowed me to take calculus to as soon as I came in From validating.

Speaker 2: 30:56

Whether or not that was a good decision on my end I am still unsure of, but it was definitely. It was definitely a challenge. But also taking AP chemistry, ap physics, because those are the classes that you'll have to take as well and I, like personally enjoyed them and I found that I probably had a greater success than had I not taken them while I was here, because I had some of these foundational pieces of knowledge that I was able to take with me, like, obviously, the courses there you kind of expand upon what you learn in, like the AP classes in high school, but it does give you at least a problem-solving set of base skills that you need, as well as, like some of the, the general topics of getting through those like first semester classes there that you can take with you and hopefully find a lot of academic success.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Yeah, I think some of that too is just the rigor. Yes, you know, just Try, you know, not not overdoing it, but doing it to a point where you're capable of handling it and understand that. You know, I think at different times it's again going by, it's okay to I don't use yeah, use word fail, yes, or be told no that maybe you okay no, instead of saying well, I just can't do that. I mean you're already performing at a certain level, maybe to get to the next level that you struggle, but then how do you find a way to keep moving? And I think Bradley gets it, obviously he's able to convey that, but I think his you know the your record speaks for itself, kind of where you are, and you can't do that without having some perseverance in there for sure.

Speaker 1: 32:38

So, in general, like we all have, we all leave something and go to something else, whether it be high school to college, whether it be from college to a job, from one job to the next job, and we we have sort of these thoughts about what the experience is going to be like or what it's going to take to be successful. In a summary, in a general summary, it was a naval experience. What she thought it was going to be, was it harder, kind of, if you kind of lay that out just in generalities.

Speaker 2: 33:12

Yes, I would say that it's definitely kind of what I expected.

Speaker 2: 33:19

It was a little hard to tell without being able to visit because of COVID and things like that, but with my background research and all the preparation going into it, as well as everything that I did here, I think I was prepared for everything that was going to be thrown at me and, as you mentioned, I didn't do everything perfectly there.

Speaker 2: 33:44

Especially my freshman year was definitely a little bit of a struggle just trying to figure everything out, because there's just so much new and things that I didn't have the time to prepare background information for. But by preparing for it as much as I could while here I knew that any single task could be accomplished. It was just like whenever you threw them together. Then it gets a little hard of figuring out which one needs to come first, which one needs to have the most priority, and I would say prioritization was the one thing that was the hardest to prepare for, simply because there is a lot of unknowns in terms of what you're doing and what tomorrow's going to look like. But once you figure that out and you build that schedule in your mind, then for me it was a lot easier, and that's whenever I truly felt like I had traction on the ground underneath me.

Speaker 2: 34:41

And then from there it's just charging forwards, Sure.

Speaker 1: 34:45

So I'm gonna ask this a certain way Do you feel like the greatest challenge for you in your life because I think there are some things that came naturally easy to use for our school and things like that Do you think it was handling adversity?

Speaker 2: 35:02

Yes, I would say so, there's. Whenever those challenges come, it's important to, no matter how big they are and how scared you are of like, oh man, if I don't get this done, there's gonna be some pretty big consequences. Just again going back to that first part, you gotta just advocate for yourself and figure it out and then trust in the end that if you think about it as a sole individual thing, it can be done. And then it's just going from there. And yeah, my freshman year, like I definitely did have some of those academic struggles and simply trying to balance like four things with three hands, but like, whenever I figured that out, it was so much better and has really allowed me to kind of appreciate how far I've grown because of that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 36:02

So I'm gonna set this next question up. Okay, we talk about the adversity of getting into the Naval Academy, once you're there, and trying to figure things out Engineering degree lots of engineering, I'm sorry, political science degree lots of engineering, german. And somehow you're now on the crew team. Yes, rowing team. I don't remember a rowing team here at Jefferson.

Speaker 2: 36:31

Platte Creek or.

Speaker 1: 36:32

Mississippi or anything, bradley, how did all this come about? Tell us about that experience, because it is true, you're on a varsity sport at a university yes, Whether it's Naval Academy or not, you're our varsity athlete.

Speaker 2: 36:45

Yes.

Speaker 1: 36:48

I kind of sit here and I talk to your mom enough and you send me a text every once in a while just, and I'm like, okay, cool. But you start to think about the whole package you're putting together here. How did that come about?

Speaker 2: 37:02

Yes. So this was like before I even got there there was an email about it and it was kind of talking about like the team has a big walk on culture, which is pretty awesome, and so I saw the email and I was like you know what? I obviously don't have the size and the strength to be a rower, but this whole Coxson thing is pretty cool and for most people that are. If you have just a vague idea of what rowing is, I guess for the viewers out there, like the Coxson is the normally smaller men or woman that sits in the stern or the back of the boat and is doing like the steering, the calls for technique and in a general race is like trying to out strategize the other crews that are around them to win the race, whether it's a straight shot 2000 meter sprint race or it's a head race on a river in the fall that involves like turns and things like that.

Speaker 2: 38:03

So I kind of thought about it and I was like you know what, like I might as well fully embrace this whole thing of just kind of jumping into something new. So I did it that summer and stuck with it. And my freshman year didn't get to see any race time but I really stuck with it. I just love the team and the dynamic of the guys. Like everyone shows up every single day and wants to work hard. It's a break from school, it's a break from like all of our activities and like we all just love it so much. Like the team calls it the brotherhood and I mean that's truly what it is. And like whenever you look at like our alumni and like what guys whether it's one year after graduation or doing, or like guys that are 20 years out of graduation or doing like everyone comes back to like their days and their hours spent on the seven river just getting after it.

Speaker 2: 38:51

And this year I finally got to or this fall was great in terms of races I got to compete at the head of the Charles Regatta, which is up in Boston and it's probably like one of the biggest rowing related events, besides the Henley Royal Regatta, which is in the United Kingdom, and then obviously like Olympic and national level competitions.

Speaker 2: 39:13

But we were fortunate enough in my boat to get a second place medal in the division that we were competing in and it was just a crazy feeling like passing some of these crews in a race where we weren't expected to pass anyone and the crowd like there was thousands of people lined along like the Elliott Bridge, the Weeks Bridge up in Cambridge Massachusetts, and just having all these like stand, all these fans surrounding the race course as we're going down and the races went perfectly to plan. Like those are like the feelings that like whenever you train for hours on end every single day and then you finally get like one race like that, it's just like the best feeling ever in terms of what you Really building some momentum there yeah yeah what you accomplished with your friends and kind of like what the sport is all about, because, like no crew is ever going to have some race that is truly like 100% perfect.

Speaker 2: 40:15

But it's the fact that you try and chase that feeling and for some people that would drive them insane. But maybe I'm insane for thinking that that's like super exciting and that's why I've stuck with it and just love it so much.

Speaker 1: 40:26

So two questions based on what you just gave me. I hope mom and dad will let you sleep over the break here. So, my goodness, that's an order from the superintendent to make sure he gets some rest. How many hours a week are you spending on this season, like you've got everything going on at the Naval Academy? It's not just being a student, there's things related to becoming an officer, there's all these things going on. How much time are you spending Like I played college football? I knew kind of my schedule all week. What are you talking?

Speaker 2: 41:01

I just took an average week?

Speaker 1: 41:02

How many hours?

Speaker 2: 41:03

Probably 20 hours of official practice and then there's like a lot of stuff that kind of goes on behind the scenes of like waking up to like walk out to the Boat House For me, like studying like some of these, like crews and the courses and things like that, but oftentimes like like it adds time out of the day.

Speaker 2: 41:25

But for me I really appreciate it because it does kind of take away from like if I have a lot of other duties that I need to do. As soon as I touch anything that's related to the Boat House, like all that stuff kind of goes out the window and I clear my head and it's kind of like a nice safe space to allow me to like perform and still get like workouts in, because I got to stay fit so that way I don't weigh too much in the boat and hinder the boat speed, but all around it kind of just like I feel like it makes me like whole and complete. There it was like that part that was missing and I didn't really know it was going to happen, Like if you would have asked me a freshman year here, like oh, you're going to be a Coxon for the heavyweight crew team and be like what's that and why?

Speaker 2: 42:11

But now I don't remember anything out in Platten Creek yeah yeah, but now that it's happened, it's like I almost like can't picture myself without it, like it's just. It's such an awesome experience with a bunch of great guys, so just one question will move on from this, but how much time I mean how do you spend on strategy?

Speaker 1: 42:30

Is that something your coaches sit down and say yes?

Speaker 2: 42:32

yeah, we have meetings together, and it kind of just varies by the week and the race. In the spring it's a little bit more straightforward, since there's no turns, it's just 2,000 meters down a course. In the fall, though, especially like that one up in Boston, like that race has a lot of like some crazy turns, and so it was mapping out like using drone images and YouTube videos and all this stuff of like.

Speaker 2: 42:58

I was at a point where, like I like I'm pretty sure when I dreamed about it, like it was, it was crazy of like I could like see the course just based off of, like online imagery, and I'd like never even touch the water. And then, as soon as, like, we were there the day before for a practice run, I was like, oh yeah, well, this is the tree that I noticed that I need to take my turn here and you know, going through this bridge, I need to be like this, far away from it, and things like that.

Speaker 1: 43:23

And one last question how many rowers are on the actual boat itself?

Speaker 2: 43:27

For most of our races there are an eight. So there's eight rowers, but we also do enter some fours at races where the coxswain sits at the front of the shell and then there are four rowers behind which. That in itself is a little different, because you're in the front, you can see better, but you can't see the guys, so it's a little harder to identify if there's problems happening because you can't see it. You have to go based off of feel and like what you feel the shell doing underneath you.

Speaker 1: 43:50

I could just picture you on that boat and kind of going back to that day at Fox, just how you kind of commanded the table. I could really see you commanding that bell With the shrimp Come on, just kidding Commanding the team, I could just see it. So that's awesome. I'm glad we talked if we could talk just about that probably in a whole podcast All right, Part of the experience of going to the Naval Academy. You know you had an engineering. You kind of changed a little bit to political science, but we still do an engineering. We talked about that enough. But without going to specifics, you get sort of this Like taste of everything the Navy has to offer. Yes, it's kind of like picking a career path.

Speaker 2: 44:35

Yes, yeah, that's that's kind of what our summers are for, and everybody's summer is different and there there are some things that every person will do the same of, but each summer, like my experiences have been able to provide me with opportunities to kind of see what all is out there, so that way I can make the most informed decision of what I want to do in terms of my career.

Speaker 2: 45:03

And I have to decide Next fall, next August, whenever I get back, which I'm still thinking about putting in a little bit more time. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of options out there for all midship and that are there, and I personally that's kind of like why I I chose to do this because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted, but I knew that like there was something out there for me. Now, like Going into my sixth semester, I feel like I've been presented with a lot of opportunities and met a lot of cool people that have kind of informed me to hopefully make the best preferences that I can and then, fingers crossed, getting what I want. I come November of next year, so that way I can be the best naval officer that I can be, so I can say this.

Speaker 1: 45:57

I'm asking you to answer it. But if you think about it like, the naval branch of our military is a complex branch and I'm trying to simplify this. You have, you know, submarines, yes, going in one direction down into the water. You have Massive battleships and aircraft carriers and you also have the aviation part of it too. So the Navy is extremely broad and so it's neat that you're part of that and get to see some of that stuff. That goes on. Even if it's not a path You're going in, it's got to be pretty impressive. All right, just a couple weeks ago you had the Army Navy game. What's that experience like? It's awesome. I kind of walk us through that day because you guys, I and I'm I'm speculating here and just stuff you see on TV. You guys are getting in buses, you're driving to like Philadelphia or New Jersey to watch a game.

Speaker 1: 46:49

Yes it's the Army Navy game.

Speaker 2: 46:50

Yes, yeah, it's a game that has everyone excited all year. I personally always look forward to it and no matter like it's one of those games where, like everyone just gets so excited for it because the winners always pretty unknown, simply because of such like a deep rooted rivalry, that anything goes and it's pretty awesome. And this year it was up in Boston, so Myself and a couple of my teammates and buddies were all able to drive up for the game and just kind of explore like I'd never been at Boston before. So it's pretty cool to just see all of the Fans in the community just come together and this even the city itself embracing Um, uh, like what was going on up there and I had like so much fun with it and it was just a really great time and every year it is. And, uh, I'm also pretty excited because Next year, for senior year, my uh, I think my parents are going to come out and go to the game so.

Speaker 1: 47:51

I feel like it's next year.

Speaker 2: 47:52

Uh, I think it's in DC, dc.

Speaker 1: 47:55

Gotcha, when you were in Boston did you go to like the uh church, to the old church tower where paul revered it his ride?

Speaker 2: 48:03

Uh, I don't know if we went to that exact church, um, but we definitely did a little bit of sightseeing while we could. We got to see kind of like the, the more historic district, uh, the, the city hall. We went down to like the harbor and things like that too, and it was, it was also. It was cool, uh, with all the christmas lights up too.

Speaker 1: 48:22

Oh, I bet I will say this about boston you hear about the ride of paul reverer and you talk about the lights and the lanterns and the church steeple. So I went then I took it like a what they call like a water taxi, back across the harbor.

Speaker 2: 48:35

Oh, yes, it was cool.

Speaker 1: 48:37

So you're over here in this old town and you see the mass of what's boston and you look back and you're like that is the highest object that paul reverer could have put the lights in back at that time and it's still kind of preserved there. I it was just kind of neat. I enjoyed it. That had to be a great experience. Um, is there anything else? Um, as far as what you can share about your experience at the academy, um, it's either just kind of cool or Something that maybe we wouldn't think about.

Speaker 2: 49:15

Yes, I would say that, uh, I just enjoy the fact that, like Uh, every day is like kind of the same but also different, and um, it's kind of nice like having uh. I personally enjoy having a uh More fixed schedule. Um, it just kind of helps how my brain's like wired and really just like Uh helps going back to like achieving Uh something little every single day and looking back and saying like okay, like I did this today and I need to do this tomorrow and just keep going. Um, I'm very kind of like goal driven Um, which is like probably evident based off like other things I've said. Um, but uh it it's nice like living uh with like all your classmates and like such a close proximity. Um, because I always know that, like at the end of the day, if I didn't have like the best day and if, like I took like a hard test or um like I just have to do something, or someone came to me with a problem, uh, that is now my problem, that I have to try and fix.

Speaker 2: 50:16

Uh, like I have, like some of my best friends uh, in the room right there and they're dealing with the same thing, um and uh, just embracing that camaraderie Um that we have with each other of like okay, like here's, here's what we got to figure out, and then you kind of put your heads together and it's just an awesome time and I, like I, I enjoy every single day, um, no matter like how difficult it is. Um, simply because of that is I know that at the end of the day, there's like Uh, this like larger puzzles that's being solved. Um and uh just trying to get one day closer to graduation. This has been great.

Speaker 1: 50:54

Um, I'm gonna end this portion. If we come back with something else, great. But Bradley, this has been phenomenal. I think that anybody listening to this today We've always been impressed you know with kind of not only how you treat others, you conduct yourself, that whole gamut. But to hear more in depth has been certainly appreciated by you coming in, and I again I'm gonna market this with our, our community, that if you've got a child, or just Even an adult, this is one you need to listen to, because of kind of your mindset of Perseverance and and everything that you can

Speaker 1: 51:26

you can just keep doing. Even if it doesn't look like the clear path is in front of you, he's working out. So thanks for joining us today. Yes, thank you for having me. Thank it was. It was an honor to have you as a student, your, your whole class. Uh, that's the one thing I do.

Speaker 1: 51:39

Kind of miss stepping out as the principal is this type of stuff, because we had those meetings at times and you know, I there's sort of this part of me too, like as a principal. I wanted to make sure that. I'll go back to Brennan for just a second. I felt like if Brennan didn't get into an academy, we were doing something wrong. That kid was outstanding and, um, the fact that he got through.

Speaker 1: 52:07

I was like, okay, we're on to something here and and and I completely understand that schools Do things to a certain point and really families and kids there has to be buy-in on that end that it's gonna work and then kind of look at the school Like what can I get from the school to get me where I want to be? It's kind of how I think it is. Schools really should not be the ones getting kids to a naval academy, they should be the ones providing the process and that rigor wherever we could. Either it's a robotics program or taking, uh, advanced math courses trying to provide that rigor. But, um, you know, I kind of go back to that whole deal where, man, it's just it's so neat to sit in these meetings, back when we had those meetings, and think where we are today and, uh, this has been awesome. Um, and I will make sure that this gets sent and we'll make sure our kids get a chance to see it.

Speaker 1: 53:02

But great job, thanks. Thanks for coming too. We're gonna go eat. You can't eat, I can't. I guess he can't eat extra gravy and stuff because he can't gain Too much weight. But hopefully, hopefully, you get to eat a few meals and get some rest. Yes, thank you so much. Thanks for being here.