With homecoming approaching, the festivities of class color day, football games, and high school memories bring out Air Academy’s Kadet Culture. Our long standing history of success in every aspect enables student life to be enriched by tradition; but how unique is Air Academy really?  Is there room to improve our Kadet culture?

Walking down the hallways of Air Academy, there seems to be a general trend of success; whether that be from the energy of the students, the above-and-beyond helpfulness of the teachers, or posters promoting positivity hung up on the walls–Air Academy stands out as a well taken care of environment.

Lily Boice, a new freshman, came into the school with fresh eyes to what Air Academy is all about.  Her first impressions of our school could have been anything, but when asked what she thought about the culture of Air Academy, the results were positive and reflective of the supportive environment fostered here.  “At first I thought Air Academy was huge and I was for sure going to get lost,” she commented, going on to say that, “…because of so many nice people showing me around, I knew that if I ever needed help, I could ask anyone because everyone is so nice!  I’m also glad I’m doing cross country because speed doesn’t really matter.  Everyone on the team is so nice, and they don’t care if you’re much slower than they are; they’re nice to everyone, especially to the new freshmen.”

Evidenced by Lily’s impressions of Air Academy and her cross country team, it’s clear that students making efforts to get involved makes all the difference in impacting their high school experience and the school’s overall culture. Our culture should be an integral and important aspect to school life.  Building that culture takes years of establishing tradition and success, and because Air Academy was established in 1957, this legacy prevails through almost 60 years of Kadets.  Fred Adams, a 1975 graduate, can tell stories about the same drive through base that is so familiar to today’s students.  Being the only public high school on a military base in the U.S. sets us apart.  Similarly, our Kadet mascot is the only one of its kind, and while it’s mythical and a little nonsensical, it’s as unique a mascot as they come.

A community member reviewing Air Academy on GreatSchools.org put it this way, “AAHS is a great platform for any student, whether college bound or entering the workforce.  As a 1978 graduate, I can attest to the excellence of this school. Academics, Sports, Music, etc. ‘It’s a matter of pride’ is one of their mottos and was true then as it is now. Go Kadets!”

GreatSchools.org ranks Air Academy as the top public high school in the state of Colorado.  And why shouldn’t it?  Air Academy boasts various institutions and faculty to serve a variety of students.  Additionally, our school works hard to provide educational and extracurricular activities well beyond the bare minimum, for example ROTC, Engineering Pathways, state champion sports teams and band programs, AVP, and unique class options.

While all of these qualifications earn Air Academy the title of a great school, how above and beyond does our culture go?

Compared to other great high schools, the culture Air Academy offers isn’t necessarily superior.  Alli Gremmilion, a senior who attended Air Academy for one year before moving to Utah to attend Davis High School, says her experience at each school was similar in many ways, yet different in others.  Upon asking her what the culture surrounding homecoming week was like at Davis, however, Air Academy began to appear like the smaller fish in the pond.

Alli’s response to comparing both high school’s homecoming weeks was, “We don’t decorate the school [for PowderPuff] like you guys do, and we don’t have class colors or anything.   Instead, we do things like a homecoming assembly and a parade, where we paint the sidewalk for different clubs.  Also, asking to homecoming is much bigger deal and so is answering, which I don’t know if answering is a thing at AAHS?”

It’s not, really.  Asking someone to homecoming at Air Academy is fun and it happens, but it’s not quite the event that Alli describes from her school.  Additionally, while our student council has been making efforts to promote homecoming and provide fun events for this year like a movie night on the football field, an elementary school parade, and a tailgate before the game, Alli’s further descriptions of her school’s homecoming blow ours out of the water.

“At homecoming there’s two different rooms,” she goes on to say, “the Jazz room where the Jazz band is playing music that’s fun to dance to and the other room where you dance to the DJ. WE. LOVE. MOSHING.  Like seriously, it’s actually dangerous. We just all get in a huge group and jump to the beat of the song pushing each other and usually get in trouble. Oh, we also have day activities, which is basically a day with your homecoming date a week before the dance or the day before the dance. Some go boating, others go paintballing, four wheeling, etc!”

If these traditions were apart of Air Academy’s culture, homecoming could be a source of even more memories.

Similarly, our school spirit, while present, could use a boost.  Davis High School’s football games could be a source of inspiration for this season’s school spirit.  “Ok, football games – they are super packed,” Alli remarked, adding that, “The homecoming game is especially packed, and for almost every football game you are smashed between the student body.  Nobody ever sits down, we paint our faces, and everyone wears camo as our school colors.  We have a flag and cow bells and the seniors get to stand at the very front which is great!  Football games are my favorite.”

This begs the question, what can we do better?

This homecoming, let’s don our blue and silver, get more people involved, and celebrate what makes Air Academy unique.  Let’s make sure that as a student body we work on unity and living up to our school’s motto: “It’s a matter of pride”.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Air Academy gets hype at homecoming. Photo used with permission from Rokbox Entertainment.