Malverne student goes from Sacred Heart to the Coast Guard

The Coast Guard Academy just aligned with a lot of what I was looking for, especially the job opportunities after graduation.”

Maureen Sussman, student

Starting Monday, June 27, Malverne native Maureen Sussman has made New London, Connecticut her second home as she begins her career at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, or USCGA. A recent graduate of Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead, Sussman went through a long and involved application process, but she had her heart set on the Coast Guard from early on.

“In Junior year I was in a one week program where we looked at all the service academies, but it solidified for me pretty quickly that I wanted Coast Guard,” Sussman stated. “It just aligned with a lot of what I was looking for, especially the job opportunities after graduation. The small fleet was a plus too.”

Sussman joins the academy in a year of record female enrollment. According to data from the Coast Guard academy, women are underrepresented in their graduates, with 60 percent of degrees going to men and 40 percent going to women last year. This year’s incoming class will be 43 percent female.

Entrance to the academy is fairly competitive as well. In 2020, the last year with available data, 1,862 people applied to the academy of which 374 were accepted, making an acceptance rate of 20.1 percent. The application process was not easy. “I’m a little bit of a try hard, I’ll admit,” Sussman said in partial jest. “I really try to push myself.” She admited too that she may have gone overboard with standardized tests. “I took the SAT five times. I know a lot of people said I was just wasting time and money, but I actually think it was worth it. Ultimately I did get my score up by a decent amount.”

As can be expected of any competitive applicant for higher education, Sussman has an impressive extra-curricular record and plans on continuing those activities going forward. “I’m a thrower in track and field, and play the flute in band. I definitely plan on continuing both at the Coast Guard Academy.” Sussman was particularly interested in the band opportunities at the Academy. “They’ve got the Batalion Band, it’s pretty prestigious, they play at NFL games, so it’d of course be great to participate in that.”

On what her future holds at the Coast Guard Academy and beyond, Sussman is keeping her options open. “There’s a lot of different direction you can go in the academy,” she explained. “I know some people go to flight school, the military, medical school. Some people even go on to NASA which is obviously awesome. But if you had to pin me down, mechanical engineering is what I’m interested in most.”

Sussman and her fellow cadets began their career at USCGA on June 27, the beginning of the academy introductory Swab Summer training program. Named after the Coast Guard’s introductory Swab rank, the program sees cadets progress through a spartan eight-week training course meant to acclimate them to Coast Guard life.

After deleting all social media, receiving a code-adherent haircut and being fitted in their uniforms, cadets will work their way through strict and intense physical and disciplinary training. The cadets will also spend one week of their training on the tall ship Eagle to hone their skills at sea. Swab Sussman could not be reached for any further comment, as electronic use is strictly limited.