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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (KKTV) - Three sets of twins, 76 second-generation and 14 international students are among the nearly 1,000 walking the stage at Falcon Stadium Wednesday morning.
The Air Force Academy class of 2017 will cap off a rigorous four years of academia and military training in a graduation ceremony beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The class started out with 1,190. Nine hundred and seventy-nine will receive their diploma Wednesday. Of those, the Academy says more than a quarter are minorities and more than a fifth are women. Their collective average GPA in high school was a 3.83, and in college a 3.04.
Ten are the third child in their family to graduate. Eleven are the children of two Academy graduates.
The class of 2017 joins more than 43,000 airmen to graduate since 1959.
As they graduate on 24 May 2017:
- 752 men and 227 women are scheduled to graduate
- 282 of those scheduled to graduate are minorities. Ninety-three are African-American, 92 are Hispanic, 67 are Asian, 18 are Pacific Islanders, and 12 are Native Americans
- 14 international students from Iraq, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Gambia
- 122 graduates in the Class of 2017 graduated from the Air Force Academy Preparatory School
- The Cadet Wing’s average SAT scores were 643, verbal, and 669, math
- The Cadet Wing’s average ACT scores were 30, English, 30.4, reading, 30.03, math, and 30, science reasoning
- 66 graduates are the second child in their family to graduate from the Academy
- 386 graduates are slated to attend pilot training
- 9 graduates are scheduled to attend combat systems operator training
- 3 graduates will attend air battle manager training
- 82 graduates will become remotely piloted aircraft operators
- 480 graduates are slotted to become rated officers
