Hockinson High senior headed to U.S. Air Force Academy

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Having just received news about her acceptance to the prestigious U.S. Air Force Academy, Hockinson High School senior Meghan VanderMaas is flying high right now. But give her a few years and she’ll likely be flying even higher.

“Ten years from now? I hope to have my pilots wings and be an officer in the Air Force,” VanderMaas says without hesitation. “I also hope that I will continue to better myself and keep improving myself.”

For most 18-year-olds, VanderMaas’ goals might seem a bit lofty, but VanderMaas is not your average teen. Raised in a family that values a good education – VanderMaas’ mother, Amy, teaches at Heritage High School in Vancouver and her father, Tony, is the principal at Ridgefield High School – the teenaged VanderMaas always aspired to go to a good college.

But there’s going to a good college and then there’s going to a great college. The Air Force Academy isn’t easy to crack. With an acceptance rate of only 15 percent, the academy ranks right up there with the Ivy League schools and other prestigious military academies like the United State Military Academy at West Point.

The Academy’s list of alumni includes dozens of legislators, authors, professional athletes, astronauts – including Frederick Gregory, the first African American to command a space vehicle; Ronald Sega, former Undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force; and Roy Bridges, Jr., the former director of both the Kennedy Space Center and the Langley Research Center – and other notable figures in U.S. aviation history.

Although she doesn’t come from a military family, VanderMaas says she was fascinated by a family friend’s stories about military life.

“I grew up listening to a friend’s stories about his time in the Navy, and I wanted something like that in my life,” VanderMaas says. “To me, being in the military means being a part of something bigger than myself and being held to a higher standard.”

VanderMaas has held herself to a higher standard for many years. She is the student body president at Hockinson High School; a member of her school’s basketball and soccer teams; a student tutor; and an active member of her Summit View Church congregation. In her “spare” time, VanderMaas enjoys spending time with her friends and going on camping and hiking trips with her family, which includes her parents and younger brother Cole, a freshman at Hockinson High.

She had always been a top-notch student and athlete, but when it came to choosing colleges, VanderMaas aimed high. Her first choice was the U.S. Air Force Academy, which is located near the Rocky Mountains, just north of Colorado Springs in Colorado. To get into the prestigious military academy, VanderMaas needed high grades, persuasive essays, impressive scores on her fitness test and a nomination from a member of the U.S. Senate of Congress.



“It was a long process,” VanderMaas says. “I had to fill out a lot of paperwork, get the nominations, and write essays on what serving in the military means to me.”

In the end, VanderMaas secured two nominations to the academy – from Senator Patty Murray, Washington state’s senior U.S. senator, and from Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, a U.S. Representative for Southwest Washington’s 3rd District – passed her intense physical fitness examination and aced the academic requirements.

“I’m very excited,” VanderMaas says of getting into the discerning academy, which has fewer than 4,000 students and only accepts a small fraction of candidates each year. “We visited the campus and it’s so beautiful. I had high expectations, but it was even better than I imagined. The people were so down to Earth and friendly. I loved it.”

The college’s intimate class sizes – most classes at the Air Force Academy have a student-teacher ratio of less than 10 to 1 – and focus on technical academic programs also appealed to VanderMaas.

“I’ve always loved math,” she says. “And (at the Air Force Academy), no matter what your major is, you are still going to take engineering and math classes, so I’m looking forward to that.”

VanderMaas says she isn’t phased by the school’s male-heavy population – women weren’t even allowed into the Air Force Academy until 1975 and still account for less than a quarter of the student body population.

“I’ve never been scared of the boys,” VanderMaas says, laughing. “I’ve always had a lot of male friends … and when I visited the academy it didn’t feel weird to me at all. Everyone was very friendly.”

Although she still has a couple months of high school left and very few summer vacation days – she graduates on June 11 and has to begin basic training at the academy on June 25 – VanderMaas says she’s already looking forward to beginning this new, exciting chapter in her life.

“I feel really blessed and I know I’ve had a lot of help along the way,” VanderMaas says. “I want to give a special thanks to Congresswoman Herrera Beutler and Senator Murray for their nominations, and to everyone who supported me in this process, and to God for this wonderful blessing … I’m really excited about this. I can’t wait to go.”