5/17/23
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
Throughout high school, Alma senior Michael King had a knack for being in the right spot at the right time. So, when a potential scholarship was on the cusp of blowing into the wind, King emailed the source.
Not once, but twice.
King, who was awarded the Advanced Designee scholarship, was on the brink of being overlooked after interviewing with Oklahoma State officials for an elite ROTC scholarship worth about $150,000. But when he didn't hear back from OSU officials, he started hounding the person who had interviewed him.
“After the interview, from what I was told, the interviewer didn’t write down everything he was supposed to, and I didn’t get the Army National Scholarship, so I kept emailing the ROTC director at OSU and pretty much, he said, ‘Sure, we’ll give it to you.’
“I was just determined.”
The Army National Scholarship will begin during earnest King’s sophomore year at Oklahoma State. It will pay for almost everything. In addition, King received the OSU out-of-state achievement scholarship and was selected by Commander Rickard as the recipient of the Jan Rickard NJROTC Memorial Scholarship.
“Right now, with tuition and room and board, it’s about $150,000,” King said. “There are other things I don’t know about yet.”
When he’s done with college, King said, he plans to spend time in the ARMY and Marines. Which, if all goes to plan, will lead to another career.
“I plan to go through the Army for six to 10 years, and then swap over to the Marine Corps for about the same time,” King said. “After that, I plan to be an armored vehicle and weapons designer and start my own business. I’m going through the Army and Marines, so I’ll have people to sell to.”
King successfully competed in Jeana Parker’s Civil Engineering and Architecture class. This summer, he’ll attend the TSA (Technology Student Association) national career and student organization for students going into STEM fields.
“That was one of the goals when we started the engineering program was to prepare kids for a future outside the normal four cores of education,” Alma High School principal Brian Kirkendoll said. “There’s only been a couple that has gone the engineering route, but for him to do that shows not only the quality of the program but also the dedication he has. Coupling that with the fact he’s going the ROTC route as well, I think that’s really cool.”
“My mom (Amber Combs) always wanted me to have straight A’s, but I didn’t really care much about grades - I went and tried to figure out what I wanted to do,” King said. “I did a little bit of everything. She was OK with that as long as I did my very best.”
Eventually, King discovered his love for Alma High School’s Robotics program.
“Michael was very involved with robotics his freshman year,” Alma Robotics teacher Jeana Parker said. “He really loved building the robot and competing against other schools. Michael is a great problem solver. He has creative approaches to the problem at hand, and this served him well in the engineering program and robotics team.”
Parker teaches three separate engineering courses, beginning with two classes, “Intro to Engineering Design” and “Civil Engineering and Architecture.”
“There are a variety of different competitions where students can showcase their skills learned in the CTE engineering program,” Parker said. “Michael placed first in Biotechnology Design, where he had to design a way for NASA Astronauts to store, prepare, and sustain food and beverages for an entire trip to Mars. His team also placed third in Engineering Design, where they had to develop a way to prevent nuclear terrorism.
“Michael and his team will be presenting these solutions at the National TSA Conference this summer.”
As was the case with Robotics, where King got stronger as each day passed, he initially signed up for ROTIC as a way of knocking out two things at once.
“I first joined NJROTC for the Health and PE credit, but I found out how much I enjoyed it,” King said. “My first semester, it was really fun, so I just decided to stick with it and it just grew on me. And here I am … now I’ll be doing it in college.”
In the end, Senior Chief Troy Peel and LCDR (Senior Naval Science Instructor) Michael Raymer opened their eyes.
“Michael was the kind of student teachers dream about,” Peel said. “He took his work seriously but had a sense of humility and humor that made him an absolute rock star in ROTC. Those traits are why he was my No. 1 pick to attend our Star Leadership Camp with retired Gen. Tommy Franks last summer.”
“They (Raymer and Peel) pretty much taught me not to give up, which is pretty much how I got this (scholarship),” King said. “I kept emailing them (OSU) and forced them to give it to me.”
Added Kirkendoll, “I don’t know how many people realize how difficult those scholarships are to get,” he said. “A lot of times we tend to focus on athletic scholarships, but for someone to get an engineering scholarship, and an ROTC scholarship, to a Div. I school is really a big deal.”