My best friend, Kate, is 18 years old from Walpole, Massachusetts, and her story truly shows how much determination it takes to prepare for military service while still in college. Through the ROTC program, she had earned a scholarship of $180,000 to pay off her college tuition, attending the University of Tampa. She has faced very hard training and has had to sacrifice a lot in her life, making it hard to do everything she used to do daily.

Kate used to not really fit in at her hometown, which made her attend boarding school at the Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island. She gained strength and resilience by going out of her comfort zone and going to this new school, which ended up changing her life for the better. Her journey highlights a lot about the discipline and commitment required in order to take on this training for the Marines.