Apr 30, 2009 7:05 pm US/Eastern
Naval Academy Grads Receive Top Honors
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) ―
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College seniors are taking their final "final exams," counting down the days until they graduate. But the end of school excitement is even greater for three students in Annapolis.
Across the country, college seniors are taking their final "final exams," counting down the days until they graduate.
Mike Schuh reports the end of school excitement is even greater for three students in Annapolis.
To get in the Naval Academy, everyone was top of their class.
Some students are recognized because of their athletic talents. Others saluted when they fly back over their college. But most of the 4,000 midshipmen endure the grueling course work without much recognition.
That was until Thursday. Darby Driscoll, Hank Donaghy and Kelley Zahalka were named by USA Today as members of the All-USA College Academic Team.
"I was ecstatic. It's a great honor both for myself and for the Naval Academy also. It's nice to be recognized after four years of hard work," said Donaghy.
A double major, Donaghy won a scholarship to Cambridge where he'll study sustainable energy.
On the academy yard, further development of his big idea could save lives.
"Over the past couple years, I've been doing a research project trying to develop a machine that could disable improvised explosive devices," said Donaghy.
"I've been doing what I enjoy all along, and all of a sudden it was recognized on a national level, which is really cool," said Driscoll. "I used parts of my summer when I could have been on vacation and participated in sustainable development programs in Africa."
She's on track to become a pilot, but she hopes to be a military diplomat focusing on rebuilding.
"Especially in Iraq right now, with provincial reconstruction teams we're seeing that we have to have both the security side and the development side to everything we do. Which is hard because we haven't necessarily cultivated expertise for that in the past years," said Driscoll.
The third winner, Zahalka, was unable to meet with
WJZ on Thursday.
She has a 4.0 average, set varsity swim records, was the first midshipman to study at a university in China and is the only one to have graduated from the U.S. Naval Dive School in Pearl Harbor.
Additionally, a Johns Hopkins student, Salman Mohammed from Plano, Texas was honored for founding a volunteer group to improve lives in inner city Baltimore.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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