I nominate Mr. Anthony Pullella for the Educator of the Year Award. I choose to nominate Mr. Pullella because of his outstanding job in his first year as commandant of the Delaware Military Academy. He has pressed the three qualities of a DMA cadet: Leadership, Citizenship, and Scholarship. Also, he has great leadership, citizenship and scholarship himself which means he leads by example.

The first reason that he received my nomination is because of his leadership. Through my first year at DMA I have been able to see him at sports outings; he’s always encouraging cadets to come out and support the sports teams. The reason he does this is because he want us to show support for our classmates like he shows support for us. The best part is he would never ask a cadet to do something he would not do himself. He has always told us to go out and lead by example.

The second reason that he received my nomination is because of his discipline to those who did something wrong but also rewarding those who achieved something great. An example of this is that our school is a gun, drug and alcohol free zone, and if you bring any of those to school, you are automatically expelled. If he hears that you are using drugs or alcohol off of school grounds, you will also be expelled. I think this is great because I really don’t want drugs in my school and most schools have a lot of contraband. Now the way he rewards the cadets that have done something great is by giving them recognition in front of the whole school on Thursdays during morning parade.

The final reason that he received my nomination is because this is his first year, and this is my best experience of my school years. When I ask the 9th-12th graders if this year is different the answer always seems to be yes and always in a better way. They say that he is way more involved than the previous commandant. I think that he is very involved in our school and I think that he should be because then we are all connected.

These are my reasons why I personally think that Mr. Anthony Pullella should receive the Educator of the Year Award. I hope that other DMA cadets will agree with me because I believe that if it weren't for “Mr. P” then I don’t think our school would be the same.