 "Photo: Jordan Keyes")
U.S. Navy recruiters visited UCF last week as part of a campus-wide event attempting to get students interested in joining the Navy.
With trailers blaring Rage Against the Machine, a Navy band playing Top 40 hits and free memorabilia being dispersed at Memory Mall and in front of the UCF Arena, the recruiters used a variety of methods to grab students’ attention.
“I tell people this isn’t your granddad’s Navy,” said Lt. Lori Rose, a nuclear programs officer from Tennessee.
Rose joined recruiters from a variety of service areas to show students what the Navy can do for them.
“This is just something to say ‘hello’ and to get [students] to check out some of the information we have,” Mass Communications Specialist Eric Franklin, said. “We’ve had quite a lot of kids come over so it’s been pretty wild so far.”
Franklin, a public affairs officer from Jacksonville, said despite the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, economic issues are causing a surge in recruitment.
“This year, as far as our recruiting goals go, we have until the end of September, when our fiscal year ends, to meet those goals,” he said. “We met those goals at the end of June.”
Part of this success is due to the Navy’s knowledge of its target demographic. Many of the recruiters said the event, which included a rope climb, an obstacle course, and sit-up and pushup challenges, was geared toward more athletic students who were most likely already interested in some form of military service.
“Pretty much anybody who’s coming over is asking pretty specific questions,” Franklin said. “They’re already interested and, if not, they’re asking ‘how can the Navy help me?’”
UCF students David Krutzler, a senior marketing major, and Zach Varraux, a junior micro & molecular biology major, were interested in signing up.
“I would like to be a SEAL. I train with a couple other guys here in the UCF area,” Krutzler said. “They told us this was going down so we came to set some scores.”
Krutzler and Varraux run an unofficial training simulator called “Hell on Lake Claire” that mimics actual SEAL training. Varraux set the push-up, sit-up and pull-up records in the Accelerator challenge at the event.
“I’ve been interested in this for most of my life,” he said.
The educational opportunities the military provides were also discussed in an effort to appeal to college students. Through ROTC Scholarships and a baccalaureate program, the Navy continues to help students pay for college.
Recruiter Suly Gomez is currently taking advantage of one such program.
“I’m currently attending college, not UCF, but I’m in college and I’m using the educational benefits to get that accomplished,” Gomez, a cryptography expert, said. “Education is the first [benefit], and the career that you get out of it.”
1 comments
for the SEALs. I live in Orlando and can be contacted through Facebook.