While many of his classmates enjoyed a quiet break from school, Reed Campbell spent a couple weeks of summer vacation getting an education in the life of a cadet – a United States Air Force Academy cadet, that is.

Campbell, who will be a senior at Lincoln County High School in August, was selected to attend the United States Air Force Academy’s 2017 Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Designed for high school juniors heading into their senior year, Summer Seminar allows participants to see a realistic slice of cadet life.  The demanding program gives a solid understanding of the challenges and rewards of life as a cadet, as well as insights into what it means to serve as an officer in the USAF.  

During the Summer Seminar, participants live in cadet dormitories and eat at the cadet dining facility, they explore academic majors ranging from aeronautics to humanities through workshops taught by Academy faculty members and they participate in a variety of physical fitness activities.  

For most participants, the highlight of the program is the “Military Exercise, or MILEX,” where they will experience what it’s like to be a fourth-class cadet, or freshman, at the Academy. During this day, participants will be challenged mentally and physically and will experience room inspections, military knowledge tests, and physical challenges and training similar to those fourth-class cadets face.

Students are selected to participate in Summer Seminar on a “whole person concept.”  The Academy is looking for emerging leaders, based on demonstrated leadership experience or participation in extracurricular and community activities, athletics and academics.

The Summer Seminar was not Campbell’s first visit to the Academy. He attended a SAME STEM Engineering and Construction Program last summer at the Academy.

Campbell is the son of David and Jennifer Campbell and grandson of David and Teresa Campbell, all of Stanford, and grandson of Herbert and Lela Noe of Beattyville.