GREYSTONE
Striving to Serve Their Country
Commander
David Bailey USN (Ret) smiles and calls himself a “junkyard
dog” when it comes to persistence.
“My style is to get hold of a problem and shake it in my teeth
until it comes apart—then I put it back together so that it’s
fixed, and stays fixed,” he states.
________________________________________
[from
left] Emily Cox and Will Israel, both students of Greystone, with
Commander David Bailey, director of Greystone at Schreiner.
A few years back, Bailey saw a problem that needed fixing. Too many
extremely bright and well-qualified young people were being turned
away from the military academies.
“That wasn’t the problem, in itself,” Bailey acknowledges.
These young people, the best of the best, were being told to go to
college for a year and then re-apply for admission.
“Problem was,” Bailey frowns, “there was nowhere
they could go where they would receive the right combination of rigorous
academics, physical and mental preparation, and moral guidance to
give them a competitive edge the second time around.”
That’s where the concept of Greystone at Schreiner University
was born. Bart Kercheval of Spring, Texas, is very clear on why he
came to the Greystone program at Schreiner.
“University of Colorado was irrelevant to my dreams, sir,”
he says with a direct look. “Too many distractions, wrong values
and crowded classes.”
His friend Daniel Rocha of Tomball, Texas agrees. “When Bart
told me that his parents had been contacted by a Naval Academy support
group called ‘Blue & Gold’ about this new academy
preparation program at some little school in Texas called Schreiner
University, it sounded pretty good to me too.
" I was already tired of being a faceless freshman at UC, and
I knew I wasn’t making progress toward my main goal.”
“That’s why just about all of us are here,” adds
Emily Cox of Crowley, Texas. “Commander Bailey has been incredibly
active contacting people like us and our parents, and letting us know
that rejection by one of the academies doesn’t mean we have
to abandon our dream of military service.”
William Israel of Wheaton, Illinois, adds emphatically, “Every
one of us handled rejection in very similar ways, and we’re
all here because we know there are only two ways to handle rejection
—accept defeat, or get to work. We’re here because it’s
the best place in the U.S. for getting in total shape for a second,
successful shot at academy acceptance.”
Asked what brought him to Greystone at Schreiner, Aaron Marshall of
Waco, Texas, responds without hesitation, “The opportunity to
prove myself, sir. And the chance to serve my country when the time
comes.” Short, sweet, and to the point.
“You know,” adds Rocha, “every one of us has struggled
against the odds to come as far as we have. My family used all our
savings to get me this bionic knee,” he taps his right leg,
“because I messed myself up in a varsity football game. Bang—in
ten seconds I thought my chances at an academy appointment were gone
forever. But my parents hung with me, I took on a full time job plus
school, and Schreiner offered me a generous financial package, and
here I am. Just received my medical OK for the academy too,”
he adds proudly.
“All of us know we weren’t rejected personally,”
says Cox. “We realized that we just weren’t qualified
enough yet, and so each of us is here to get more than qualified.
I don’t care how long it takes, I’m going to keep working
and praying until I succeed.”
Asked what advantages Greystone offers compared with other service
academy preparatory programs, Bailey smiles, “Every program
likes to think that they’re unique, but the fact is that there’s
nothing like Greystone anywhere. In a few years there will be programs
that look like us on dozens of campuses, but the combination of the
Greystone vision and the Schreiner commitment to academic excellence
is going to be hard to match.”
Bailey continues, “When these young people get to the academy,
they are going to be so well prepared that they’ll be able to
test out of at least some of their core freshman courses, and they’ll
know the subject matter so well that they will be able to get top
grades with one hand tied behind their back. What that means is that
they will complete their entire four year academy coursework in less
than four years, with a high GPA.”
Leaning forward to make the point, Kercheval elaborates, “That’s
an incredible advantage because the earlier you complete your academy
coursework, and the better your academic performance, the more you
are assured of getting your first choice of military career specialties.
You want to fly a jet, you can fly. You want submarine duty, it’s
yours. If you’re in the middle of your class, finishing at the
same time as everyone else, you get what’s left.”
Marshall adds “If you’re able to test out of some of your
academy courses because of what you gain from the Greystone program,
that means you’ll be able to begin work on your master’s
degree even before you graduate from the academy, and that’s
a huge career advantage.”
Bailey has good reason to be proud of Greystone’s accomplishments.
He says, “This is our first year at Schreiner, and at the midterm
our kids have managed to earn an average GPA of 3.78. That’s
while carrying 18 credit hours worth of calculus, chemistry with lab,
English composition and rhetoric, American history, Honors Seminar,
HPER (PE), Freshman Seminar and Character Development. And a “full
load” is considered 12-15 credit hours.”
Dean of Students Peg Layton has no doubts about how well the Greystone
program is working. She comments, “We have been very pleased
with the caliber of the Greystone students. They are bright, motivated
young people and are a great addition to the Schreiner community.”
Commander Bailey credits the study hall on Sunday through Friday night
from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. with making a difference, plus the fact that
he receives each student’s grades every Friday.
“Nothing like a little micro management,” Bailey observes.
“We address any problems they are encountering immediately before
they become a crisis—a habit they will need when they get to
the Academy!”
That’s when, not if.
Click
here for more info >
Front Cover