Posted on 11/29/2007 7:53:56 AM PST by cll
A senior cadet at the Air Force Academy is a recipient of one of 32 Rhodes scholarships for 2008.
Cadet Hila Levy of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, is first in her class at the academy. She is a biology major who has minors in Arabic, French and Spanish. She is fluent in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Hebrew.
Levy has researched hemorrhagic fever in Venezuela and is the author of several papers relating to language in the military and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She will attend the University of Oxford in England and plans to obtain two master's degrees — one in global health science and another in medical anthropology. She then plans to attend medical school.
Levy is the first resident of Puerto Rico to receive a Rhodes scholarship.
Hila Levy named 2004 Cadet of the Year
Levy is tops among CAP’s 26,000 youth; Seven other cadets win regional awards
by Mark Wilkinson, Educational Program Manager
Civil Air Patrol’s 2004 Cadet of the Year, Cadet Colonel Hila Levy, will enter the United States Air Force Academy class of 2008, where she will major in astronautical engineering. She plans to enter Air Force pilot training when she graduates, but really has her heart set on becoming a NASA astronaut.
Representing the Southeast Region and Puerto Rico Wing’s 126th Composite Squadron, Cadet Levy joined CAP in 2000 at the age of 15.
She is the PR-126 Cadet Commander as well as the Group 1 Cadet Group Commander.
For Cadet Levy, a big milestone for her future plans came on her sixteenth birthday. That’s the day she earned her private pilot license for powered aircraft.
Membership in the National Honor Society is one big highlight of Cadet Levy’s high school accomplishments. She is also an Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction, National Hispanic Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist and is listed on the National Honor Roll.
She earned the Eastman Kodak Young Leaders Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and Leadership and is a graduate of a USAF Academy summer seminar.
In addition to a stellar academic record, Cadet Levy has a tremendous history of leadership in extra-curricular activities. She served as class president and played girls’ varsity soccer, volleyball, and cross country. Clubs she has participated in include the Recycle Club, Math Team, Science Bowl Team, Community Service Club, French Club and the National Geographic Bee, where she was a national-level finalist.
Cadet Levy is an active member of Young Judea, the largest peerled United States Zionist youth movement, where she acted as the national social action programmer. The International Vegetarian Union relies on her for Spanish, French and Hebrew translations.
For Cadet Levy’s leadership in CAP, her scholastic achievements, and outstanding record of community service, Civil Air Patrol is proud to honor Cadet Levy as its 2004 Cadet of the Year. She will formally receive her award at the National Board and Annual Convention in Tampa this August, along with a $1500 college scholarship presented in the name of the US Air Force Chief of Staff.
Rosie Perez wasn’t a Rhodes Scholar?
CAP has the most outstanding adolescent leadership program around.
If Milton Himmelfarb is to be believed, Cadet Levy likely does not feel too conflicted upon entering the voting booth.
The International Vegetarian Union relies on her for Spanish, French and Hebrew translations.
I agree that she is going places, and she has some impressive credentials. Yet, some people will focus solely on that one sentence and try to label her a liberal pinko-commie infiltrator trying to bring the Academy down from the inside.
I’m guessing that star on the Puerto Rican flag might need six points in her case.
I agree that this young lady is going to go far due to her intelligence and drive. I certainly don’t want to take anything away from her accomplishments. I would point out that the purpose of the USAFA and all of the military academies is to produce officers to serve this country. In the case of the USAFA, those officers have been pilots, navigators, etc. There are other resources for the Air Force to draw from for medical specialties.
She wanted to be a pilot and an astronaut at first, but I guess she didn’t pass the flight physical or something since she obviously changed career tracks once inside the Academy.
Pretty, too.
And a paratrooper too! (well, at least a jump school graduate). Thanks for the pic.
Very impressive! It’s very refreshing and reassuring to know that there is some very incredible young talent out there, when all you usually here about is the trash.
I’m not sure how large it is, but there’s always been a Jewish community in Puerto Rico.
Though most of the Spanish speaking jews I know on the island have Cuban parents or grandparents. This one I’m pretty sure was born on the island. I know the chief of the CAP here.
Ping
Juan Epstein
I know...disappointing, isn't it?
(tongue-in-cheek alert)
This young lady should make Pat Buchanan proud!
We in Louisiana can boast that our Governor-elect Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants and a Catholic convert, is a former Rhodes scholar.
Yah, I’m praying that Jindal proves to be as good for Louisiana as he seems. A Republican outside of the corrupt Democratic machine, a Rhodes Scholar, a convert to Christianity, a man outside of the black/white divide . . . pretty hopeful stuff.
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