As an educator, historian of education, and life long learner, I am a curious person so imagine my delight in joining the NYMA community, an academy that has been educating generations of young people for 130 years.  Naturally, I wanted to learn more as John F. Kennedy said,  “We celebrate the past to awaken the future.” Looking into NYMA’s history I stumbled upon a 1941-1942 catalogue for the school, in it the prospective cadet could learn everything they needed to learn about the program.  Under the “Military Department” section the following was written: “The New York Military Academy is not a training school of the United States army, nor, primarily, for the reserve army.  It was organized and has been conducted for many years on a military basis because its officers believe that a thorough military training is the best possible preparation for the duties and responsibilities of civil life.” Reflecting on that paragraph, I realized how our past could awaken our future.  We recently, for multiple reasons, ended our JROTC program at NYMA. That decision was met with mixed reviews.  But looking at our past we can embrace that decision as one in keeping with our mission. NYMA was not established as a training school for the army, or any branch of service.  We do not discourage that service and applaud all alumni and alumnae’s decision to serve.  It is an honorable calling.  But our role, harkening back to those words written over 75 years ago, is to prepare our cadets for the duties and responsibilities embodied in civic life. Watching them as they create the 2019-2020 Student Council, folding the flag at the end of the day, and the witnessed daily examples of fairness, caring, and responsibility, I see we are teaching the duties of citizenship— education, leadership, spirit, and discipline, that is our mission.  — Christine C. McDonald, Dean of Academics