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Front & Center News from Fork Union Military Academy – January 28, 2022

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Stories in this issue:

  • 100% College Acceptance Goal Reached Already this Year
  • January Birthdays Celebration
  • Scholarship Deadlines Extended for the 2022-2023 School Year
  • Photo Galleries to Update Prices in February
  • Upcoming Admissions Events
  • Custom Senior Photos
  • Bravo Zulu Awards
  • Do you want to be a part of our Cadet Corps?

100% College Acceptance Goal Reached Already this Year

One of Fork Union Military Academy's most important academic goals each year is that 100% of our graduating seniors will be accepted to a college of their choice. We want to ensure that all of our students are well-prepared for college and that each one of them will have that option available to them when they graduate from FUMA.

Our outstanding senior class has already achieved that goal, as of December 13th.

This amazing accomplishment is a credit to the hard work done by our seniors and the excellent support given to each one of them by our College Placement and Academic Services team under the leadership of the department's Director, Kelsey Hill, and the Assistant Director, Dr. James Benson.

We recognize that not all of our seniors will choose to enter college directly after completing their high school career. Some will choose to take a gap year to do some traveling or gain some other type of life experience. Some will choose to enter military service or pursue a trade. But each one of them will not only be ready for college, they will have a college acceptance letter in their hands giving them the option to move on directly to college.

Additional college acceptances for these young men continue to arrive each week, giving these seniors even more options to consider for the upcoming year.

Congratulations to our seniors in the Class of 2022, and a big thank you to the members of our Department of College Placement and Academic Services!

January Birthdays Celebration

In a great new tradition introduced by Col. David L. Coggins, the 11th President of Fork Union Military Academy, each month we gather the cadets and employees who have birthdays during that month for a small celebration with cake, cupcakes, or other delicious birthday treats.

Celebrating January Birthdays

Scholarship Deadlines Extended for the 2022-2023 School Year

Fork Union Military Academy offers several options for new students to earn special, merit-based scholarships. The school has extended the deadline for applications for these scholarship opportunities due to the impact of the current pandemic and its effects on all of our schedules.

The prestigious Trustee Scholarship offers the winner a full-tuition scholarship as well as uniforms for each year the student is in attendance at the Academy. The application deadline for this scholarship has been extended to February 14, 2022.

The new Body, Mind, and Spirit Scholarship offers a substantial scholarship grant for winning cadets and an important piece of the application process is a video self-produced by the applicant. Another scholarship offering a sizable scholarship grant is our BGAV Baptist Scholarship given in cooperation with the Baptist General Association of Virginia. This scholarship is open to students who are members of a Virginia BGAV-associated Baptist Church. The application deadline for both of these scholarships has been extended to March 31, 2022.

Photo Galleries Price Updates in February

Our photo galleries, located at https://photos.forkunion.com, currently contain 345,662 photos from each school year back to 2005. We post in excess of 20,000 photos each and every school year, and we expect to exceed that number in the 2021-2022 school year. In January 2022 alone, the photos we've posted have been viewed 203,805 times.

Those numbers are staggering, and emphasize how important we believe it is to provide parents and family members a look at life on our campus each month.

Our goal is to have our costs of creating all of these photographs to be offset by the sales of photographs and photo products from our galleries. You can purchase everything from a 4"x6" photo print or a coffee mug or mouse pad, to a 30"x40" mounted canvas print to hang on your wall.

While our costs have escalated in recent years, we have not made any changes to our prices in more than a decade. And the buying behavior of our families has changed in the past decade as families have moved away from buying prints and products to instead buying downloads of the photo files themselves so they can order prints and products elsewhere or print them on their own printers.

In recent years, families have purchased fewer photos and photo products (top) and instead have purchased downloads of photos (bottom) at a lower price.

We have decided that we must make some long-needed adjustments to our prices to help meet our additional costs so we can continue to provide this much-wanted service.

We will activate our new price list the week of February 14th, so you can still take advantage of our low prices for the next two weeks. After February 14th, you can expect somewhat higher prices for our high resolution download files, and modest price increases across our wide spectrum of photo products and prints.

You can help us keep providing high quality photographs from campus each month simply by visiting our galleries and purchasing a few items, as your purchase will be helping us to continue providing 20,000 images or more each school year. Thank you!

Upcoming Admissions Events

The best way to learn about Fork Union Military Academy is to schedule an appointment with our Admissions Office and come for a family visit and receive your own individual tour of the campus.

We also schedule a number of Admissions Fairs in various cities and regions throughout the year.

Saturday, Feb 19—Admissions Fair in Fairfax, VA

  • Meet with our admissions staff at an Admissions Fair on Saturday, February 19th, from 9 AM to 1 PM at the Fairfax Marriott at Fair Oaks.

Custom Senior Photos

KFS Studios is our authorized vendor to provide custom senior portrait services. If you are looking to get some outstanding custom portraits of your cadet, just contact Kristin Firewicz.

Learn more at: https://kristinfirewiczstudios.com/home-phase-12

Or find her on Instagram at: @KRISTINFIREWICZ

Bravo Zulu Awards

Every Friday the Fork Union Military Faculty and Staff meet to nominate a few who have exceeded the standards and demonstrated superlative performance. Whilst we have various awards and recognitions - a simple "Well Done!" we hope, is also appreciated. The combination of the Bravo and Zulu nautical signal flags, i.e., Bravo Zulu, also referred to as "BZ," is a naval signal, typically conveyed by flag hoist or voice radio, meaning "Well Done" with regard to actions, operations or performance.

The following are the Bravo Zulu awards for this week:

Cadet Private Dominic Julius is a senior and a third-year cadet in Bravo Company. He is a boarding student from Philadelphia, PA and is a member of our prep football and track teams. This week, he continuously volunteered to clean the Bravo Company area in the dining hall. He also placed 2nd at the Hardy Invitational track meet on Tuesday in the 55-meter dash. Cadet Julius currently has two college offers to play football - Youngstown and Norfolk State have both offered him full scholarships. Bravo Zulu, Cadet Julius!

Cadet Joseph Chadwell is an eighth grader and first-year cadet in Charlie Company. He is a boarding student from Seaford, DE and was recently promoted to Squad Leader, 1st Platoon. Cadet Chadwell has shown quick adaption and outstanding performance of duty. Recently, Cadet Chadwell made a recommendation to his chain of command and TAC officer to distribute hard copies of Blue Books (FUMA’s rules and regulations) to the cadets in seventh grade which was adopted and will be a helpful resource in addition to accessing it via the online website. His willingness to innovatively take on challenges shows strong development and will be helpful for the cadets in his squad. Bravo Zulu, Cadet Chadwell!

Cadet Command Sergeant Major Wesley Lay is a junior and a fourth-year cadet who serves in the Battalion Staff. He is a boarding student from Stafford, VA and has served as a commander of the Retan Rifles as well as a member of the cross country and baseball teams. He is a competent leader who works hard to oversee the First Sergeants and maintain excellence within the corps. Over the past few weeks, he has worked closely with the First Sergeants to develop a new and improved accountability roster sheet for the corps. Bravo Zulu, Cadet Lay!

Coach Sam Miller has been serving as the Dive Coach for several years here at the Academy. Recently, he has been assisting as a substitute teacher. He also created an instant replay video system for divers’ feedback and instruction that has resulted in improved scores and safety. Coach Miller’s reliability, professionalism, and service to our cadets—both in the classroom and at the pool—are always on display. Bravo Zulu, Coach Miller!

COL Winston Brown coordinated the Fred Hardy Invitational track meet that took place on Tuesday. Over 20 teams and 500 student athletes participated in the VISAA sanctioned meet. Under Coach Brown's care, even our largest tournaments run like a well-oiled machine. Coach Brown has been leading our track program for 25 years and during that time his cross country, indoor track, and track & field teams have won 23 state titles and have produced at least 34 nationally-ranked All-Americans. We appreciate COL Brown’s hard work in the classroom and on the field. Bravo Zulu, COL Brown!

MAJ David Mitchell’s Seventh Grade Class. Each year, MAJ David Mitchell’s seventh graders write about ideas they would like to see implemented at the Academy. Col. Coggins reviews their suggestions and implements the changes that are feasible and will benefit the corps. This past week, 10 suggestions were presented and 9 approved to be implemented including having more fiction and graphic novels in the library, some new furniture for their lounge/meeting room, and other practical things to increase morale and welfare. Bravo Zulu, MAJ Mitchell’s Seventh Grade Class!

Go FUMA!

Do you want to be a part of our Cadet Corps?

Are you a young man in the 7th to 12th grade? Do you want to be a man known for integrity, respect for yourself and others, faith, character, and discipline?

We encourage you to fill out an application for enrollment and join our cadets here at Fork Union Military Academy.

Created By
Daniel Thompson
Appreciate

Credits:

Photos by: Kristin Firewicz, Kelly Barnette