The academies consist of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York; and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut.

A ninth student has also been accepted to the Air Force Academy Prep School.

All will begin attending the academies later this month after they graduate from area high schools or other educational institutions.

The students and the academies they will attend include:

The elite service academies prepare college-aged Americans to be officers of the U.S. uniformed services. After four years of study, service academy graduates become commissioned as officers in the active or reserve components of the U.S. military or merchant marine for a minimum of five years.

Students seeking to attend the nation’s service academies must be nominated by their Member of Congress. The institutions evaluate all the nominations received by Members of Congress from across the nation, and then decide which nominees to accept.

Students nominated by Meng compete against students from throughout the country and must meet the highly competitive educational, physical and extracurricular standards set by the individual institutions. Meng is assisted in the nomination process by her Academy Review Board, a panel of local community leaders.

This is the third round of students that Congresswoman Meng – who took office in 2013 – has nominated to the academies. The nine students selected this year were chosen from the 23 that Meng nominated.

Since she was sworn into Congress three-and-a-half years ago, Meng has made 83 nominations, and a total of 19 students have been accepted.

“It is an honor to congratulate these outstanding young men and women,” said Meng. “They are our next generation of leaders and I thank each of them for dedicating themselves to our country. They’ve made me proud and I know they’ll make our nation proud as well. I wish them all the best.”

To congratulate the students, Meng hosted a reception this afternoon for them and their families at her Northeast Queens office in Flushing. She also presented each student with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition. In addition, Lieutenant Commander Kelly Gualtieri, the Northeast Admissions Officer at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy took part in the reception as a special guest.

This fall, Meng plans to once again sponsor “U.S. Service Academy Information Night” for Queens students who are interested in applying to the U.S. Service Academies. The day and location will be announced in the coming months. Last year, Meng hosted the event in October at Forest Hills High School.