Erickson to attend West Point leadership program
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Maryville High School junior Lukas Erickson is among 1,000 young people selected to attend the Summer Leaders Experience this June at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Erickson is the son of Donald and Deby Erickson of Maryville.
More than 5,000 juniors nationwide applied to attend the selective program, which offers high school juniors the opportunity to experience life at the famed military college, where they live in cadet barracks; eat in the cadet mess; and participate in academic, leadership, athletic and military workshops.
While at West Point, attendees also take part in a virtual reality war simulation.
The academy is a four-year, co-educational, federally funded undergraduate college located 50 miles north of New York City. Founded in 1802, West Point was the United States’ first college of engineering, and its primary mission is to prepare men and women to serve as commissioned officers in the United States Army.
Candidates for admission apply directly to the academy and also must receive a nomination, usually from a member of the U.S. Congress. Other nominators can include the president and vice president of the United States.
Lukas Erickson said Tuesday he intends to apply for admission to West Point and has begun the application process set up by the offices of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves and U.S. senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blount.
If he fails to win an appointment, Erickson, who wants to study chemical engineering, said he still plans to pursue a military career by attending the ROTC program at another college or university.
West Point students are officers-in-training and referred to as cadets or, collectively as the United States Corps of Cadets. Tuition is fully paid by the Army in exchange for an active-duty service obligation upon graduation.
Approximately 1,300 cadets enter the Academy each July with about 1,000 going on to graduate from each class.
At MHS, Erickson competes in the shot put and discus events for the Spoofhounds track and field team and is a member of the speech-and-debate and academic squads. He also serves as president of the Paintball Club, which he helped found.
Outside of school, Erickson is an Eagle Scout belonging to Troop 75 and a warrior in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, an honor camping society that is part of the Pony Express Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
It’s going to be a busy summer for Erickson, who following his return from New York will attend Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
