Anchors aweigh: Three Cape Girardeau County students are selected for the Naval Academy

John Kipper admits he's not a morning person. But the Cape Girardeau high school student figures that will change this summer when he enters the United States Naval Academy.

He'll have to get up at 5:15 each morning. "That is going to be my big problem," he said.

He'll also get a new haircut. "This won't fly," he said of his thick head of blond hair. "You are bald your first year," he said, flashing a broad smile.

But Kipper, whose brother graduated from the naval academy in 2002, says he's up to the challenge.

He doesn't mind giving up his blue-jeans attire for a military uniform. Kipper, 18, said he's looking forward to the structure and discipline of academy life.

He is one of two students at Cape Girardeau Central High School who have been admitted to the prestigious service academy and one of three in Cape Girardeau County.

The other two students are Hannah Lewis, 18, of Cape Girardeau and Roxanne Hudak, 18, of Jackson.

Central High principal Dr. Mike Cowan said it's rare to have two students from the same high school admitted to the same service academy in the same year.

Cowan said it's the first time that's happened since he was hired as Central High principal in 2001.

No other students in Cape Girardeau County have been admitted to the freshman class for 2006 at any of the other service academies.

Admission to the nation's four service academies doesn't come easily.

The naval academy gets more than 11,000 admission applications annually but admits only about 1,200 for each new class.

The applicants last year included 4,320 who obtained the necessary nomination from their federal lawmakers. But less than 2,000 of those nominees met scholastic, medical and physical requirements and fewer still actually are offered admission, the academy says.

Students have to meet academic and physical requirements, and be nominated by their congressman and U.S. senators.

"It is a long, long process," Kipper said. "It's kind of overwhelming."

Once admitted, students face four years of college and at least five years of military service once they graduate.

But the payoff is a first-class college education paid for by the federal government, Kipper said.

Kipper, Lewis and Hudak will begin their academy careers in Annapolis, Md., with a six-week summer session designed to get them ready for the rigors of the military campus.

The session includes physical training. "We'll learn how to march and we'll learn how to salute," said Kipper.

Applicants have to have a medical exam, pass a physical test and receive written recommendations from teachers, principals and counselors.

Kipper said the naval academy considers everything from a student's high school grades to his or her extra curricular activities.

The academy -- which wants physically fit individuals -- also looks at students' participation in high school sports.

Kipper and Lewis have performed on Cape Central's cross-country and track teams.

Hudak has played volleyball and soccer at Jackson High School.

"You have to be athletic and smart and be a good person," said Kipper.

Ninety-one percent of last fall's first-year students participated in high sports, according to the academy. A fourth of the freshman class had been president or vice president of a high school club. Fifty-nine percent had been in the National Honor Society of high school students.

Hudak said applicants have to run a mile and perform various exercises such as sit-ups and pull-ups.

The application process for Kipper, Lewis and Hudak began last summer. All three applied to the naval school. At the same time, they applied to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and U.S. Sens. Jim Talent and Kit Bond for nomination to the academy.

They had to write essays for both the academy and the federal lawmakers, explaining their desire to attend the school.

All three Cape Girardeau County high school students got a taste of academy life during a weeklong seminar at the naval school last summer.

"We got to go out on boats," said Hudak who has been around water much of her life. Her family has lived in New Zealand, Oregon and Alaska.

Lewis loved her week at the academy. "I liked the intensity of it," said Lewis who aspires to a career as a Navy doctor.

But she's still undecided about attending the academy. She said she may enroll at a small Christian college in Minnesota that has a Navy ROTC program.

Either way, the Navy pays her college fees, she said.

Kipper isn't surprised that the academy doesn't make it easy to enroll.

Turning out Navy officers is expensive. The academy estimates the four-year cost amounts to a quarter million dollars per student, Kipper said.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson compared the service academies -- Army, Navy, Air Force and Merchant Marine -- to Ivy League schools. "It is a tough academic environment and lots of hard work," she said.

Jackson High School counselor Sarah Nussbaum said it's an honor for a student to be admitted to one of the academies.

"I know it is a very rigorous selection process, but it is also a tremendous way to get an education," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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