Hey everyone, I have a huge request for anyone willing to help me.
So I'm a cadet at the United States Coast Guard Academy. I thought I would have to give up my dream of marching with a DCI corps after I decided to come here, because every summer we have additional training that takes up the entire summer. However, after talking to the Cadet Training Officer, he may be willing to let me use DCI as my summer training for the summer of 2017 if I'm able to convince him that it would give me just as much leadership and personal development as normal summer training would! For context, my training for that summer would likely consist of spending 11 or so weeks on a Coast Guard Cutter and basically pretending to be a junior officer.
So here's were y'all come in, I hope.
I know that DCI would be something that would be hugely influential in my life and my development, but having never marched with a corps I don't really have the examples to back it up. If anyone out there is willing, I would be extremely grateful if you could write some kind of statement or blurb about how Drum Corps has made you a better person, a better leader, anything I can use to convince him to let me do this. I'm hoping to assemble a collection of as many testimonies from as many people as possible to present to him and prove that this would be a worthwhile summer experience for me. If there are any military members out there that might be able to relate your DCI experience to your military career, that would be incredibly helpful as well!
I know that none of you know who I am and this really has no effect on you, but if you could take just a minute and write me anything, no matter how long, any little bit will help and I would be eternally grateful!!