October 2002 Blue & Gold Officer's Notes

Cindy Miller '90, Area B&G Coordinator

What do you do if you know of a student who wants to attend the U.S. Naval Academy?

As USNA alumni, there are numerous times when you know of a great candidate for USNA or one that is interested in attending. You may be familiar with the student personally or know of them through a friend, coworker, or through other activities.

What can a BGO do for you?

First, get the student in touch with their Blue & Gold Officer (BGO). To do this, contact Cindy Miller, Area Coordinator for the Blue & Gold Officer program in the state of Georgia, at (770) 650-8921 or cindymiller@1990.usna.com. The candidate’s Blue & Gold Officer will be able to get them started on the right path to making sure they take the right classes in school, get involved in sports and leadership roles, and to find out more about USNA and the Navy. Every school in the state has a Blue & Gold Officer assigned to it, as there are about 60 of us. I have provided further information on BGOs at the end of this article.

Other than having them contact their Blue & Gold Officer, you are also more than welcome to contact Cindy and give her any background on the student. During the application process, you may decide to write a recommendation letter to USNA for the student. You should recommend that the student contact their congressman and two senators to get information on the nomination requirements.

Here are a few things that we always try and tell underclass when they are considering USNA:

Go to www.usna.edu and register under the admissions section.
Take the PSAT and SAT often and take the timed test only. USNA only looks at the highest verbal and highest math score ever received by the student.
If the student has registered at the above web site, they will automatically get an application to USNA summer seminar in January or February of their junior year in High School. Summer seminar is one of three one-week sessions with 600 rising seniors per session held at USNA for those students that have competitive PSAT/SAT scores and are interested in USNA. The students get briefs on the application process, the USNA summer programs for midshipmen, academic opportunities, and even one day of being treated like a plebe.
Be involved in sports. This can be organized school sport or sports provided by private organizations.
Take the suggested academic courses as outlined in the USNA web site. Take as many AP and honors courses as possible. Since USNA looks at student from all over the country ranging from home schooled, to those attending small rural schools, to those in very competitive private schools; class rank and GPA is not easy to evaluate evenly. AP and honors classes are fairly similar throughout the country and offer a better basis for USNA to judge the academic ability of a student.
Be a leader and be involved. It doesn’t matter whether it is school sponsored, civil activities, scouting, or job related. We recommend that they demonstrate “all around” performance and not just leadership in one area.

If you know of a student that does not live in Georgia, you can also contact Cindy Miller or go to the Academy web site at www.usna.edu and locate the Blue & Gold Officer area coordinator for the state where the student lives.

Information on a BGO:

A BGO is a USNA Blue and Gold Officer.

BGOs are volunteers who perform counseling and interview students that are applying to USNA. A BGO performs a very important and needed service to the Academy Admissions office by providing a face-to-face interview with the candidate and evaluating the student for their true desire to attend USNA and serve in the Naval service.
USNA Admissions has a computer system and web site that lists all the students that are applying to USNA and their information such as school they attend, SAT scores, whether they passed the medical and physical tests, nomination information and when the student submitted the required application paperwork. As a BGO, you have access to the students that are assigned to you.
Besides working with students, BGOs go into their assigned schools and talk to counselors, attend college fairs, and work with congressmen and senators on their nomination committees and with their Academy Days (Academy Days are where the congressman invite students of all grades that are in their district and interested in any of the academies to come and talk to academy representatives).
A BGO can be an active duty or reserve officer, retired military, a civilian who was an Academy graduate, or civilians who are parents of midshipmen or graduates.

We are always looking to add BGOs to our great team here in Georgia. If you are interest in being a BGO and helping USNA get the most qualified and motivated students, please contact Cindy Miller at (770) 650-8921 or cindymiller@1990.USNA.com.

Cinday A. Miller ’90