CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston native Chris Kay is back home from the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland to offer words of advice to high school students in Kanawha County interested in joining the Navy.
Kay, a 2014 graduate of George Washington High School, is one of nearly 300 midshipmen who were sent back to their hometowns to raise awareness about the Academy.
“They asked about what our daily life is,” said Kay about the students he spoke with at Charleston Catholic High School and the Jamie Dickenson guidance office. “They asked about the admissions process and they were just really curious about how people’s lives changed when they came.”
Kay said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline” the transition from high school to the Naval Academy was a bit of a culture shock for him.
“You go from being in high school where you’re in charge of yourself. You make all of your own decisions,” he said. “Someone telling you how to do everything else, then you forget how to tie your own shoes.”
Being a second year student at the Academy has been slightly less challenging for Kay. He said it was a significant change for him when he first arrived in Annapolis.
“Before you start the Naval Academy you have seven weeks of a basic training-like environment. They go in and shave your head. They take all of your clothes away and give you brand new clothes. It’s really just an indoctrination into the military,” he said.
Kay is studying cyber operations that ties in with computer science. The workload has been very structured, but he said he enjoys that aspect.
“It’s not as tough as it could be just because we’re so structured. I mean I’m told when I have to study, so they definitely eliminate the distraction,” Kay said.
Before heading off to Maryland, Kay participated on the swim and basketball teams at GW.
Last summer, he took a trip to Boston and New York with the Naval Academy Yard Patrol and also traveled to San Diego to shadow enlisted personnel.
In 2016, he will visit Estonia and Germany for various cyber conferences then study cyber operations abroad.
Kay is part of the program called OPINFO at the Academy. He is also an active member of the SHAPE program and the “Its on Us” campaign where he was invited to listen to Vice President Joe Biden discuss the effort.