Senior Trace St. Julian was handed a $200,000 U.S. Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship by a senior chief petty officer on Nov. 10. 

An ROTC scholarship is more of a contract between a student and a branch of the military, agreeing that the branch will pay for college and the student will enroll in the military after graduating.

“It is super exciting knowing I have this opportunity to pursue in college and beyond,” St. Julian said.  

ROTC scholarships are awarded to select students across the country who are both academically and physically fit. 

St. Julian was required to get good grades, stay in shape physically, and take part in many extracurricular activities, including journalism, debate and sailing. 

The application also asked a lot of questions about leadership and St. Julian did not fall short. He is a varsity team captain, an editor for The Falcon school magazine, and a club officer. 

Come senior year, he finally hit the submit button on the Naval ROTC application portal. “I felt somewhat relieved, as it was my first application in terms of my college future, but I knew I still had to get into college to make this scholarship count,” he said. 

The benefit of getting an ROTC scholarship, rather than directly attending one of the military branch schools, is that St. Julian will be able to apply and attend the school of his choosing.

He said his top two schools are Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Institute of Technology. St. Julian plans on majoring in either chemical or nuclear engineering. 

He will be required to serve for five years in the Navy once he graduates and he will immediately have officer status once he joins as a part of his scholarship instead of just being enlisted.