The biggest question during high school is what someone plans to do with their future. Some high schoolers have responded with amazing accomplishments. Such as senior Cole Dudley receiving offers from both the United State Naval and Air Force Academies and senior Olivia Belin received a full ride scholarship from the Notre Dame Reserve Officer Training Corps program.

“The Air Force and Naval Academies look at everything that you do,” Dudley said. “They want someone who is academically as well as athletically capable and who can still manage a lot of community service. When you become a leader in the military, it’s selfless service first. That’s what they look for in people before they select them and I think that’s the most important thing that they look at.”

In order to meet the high expectations of the academies, a person must put forth a tremendous amount of time into meeting all the requirements. For some, this can be tiring, but for those who go on to complete these goals, there is always some type of support system.

“It’s been a goal for about a year now,” Dudley said. “I’m pretty happy to finally get the acceptance after a year of community service and everything. I think what helped me accomplish all this was mainly my parents and my peers encouraging me to go out into the community and do service and things like that. I would say that a lot of it wasn’t on me and more of other people pushing me to do stuff.”

While Dudley did catch the eyes of several people and recruiters, he was not the only one at Manhattan High turning heads. Belin’s full ride consists of the 60,000 dollar per year tuition fee of Notre Dame being paid for, although she still has to pay for dorms and other expenses. Despite accomplishing this goal, Belin is still planning on remaining focused and working hard.

“Right now I’m just focused on working hard and doing well in college,” Belin said. “I know I’ll grow really close to the other people doing ROTC at Notre Dame so I’m excited for those bonds. I also like challenges so the idea of joining the Army is exciting to me.”

Dudley plans to study biology while becoming a pilot in the Air Force.Although both students seem to have the answer to one of the largest questions in high school, they still have questions about the future.

“I’m a little uncertain of the future and what it holds for me,” Dudely said. “I’m still looking forward to finding out…With biology, I always like marine biology the best so I’m hoping to do some kind of conservation sort of thing in the future, maybe become a future relating to that or just retire from the military and then become a conversationalist or something of that sort.”