LYNN — Seniors Tyler Generazzo and Erignacio Fermin have spent four years in the Lynn English High School Marine Corps Junior ROTC program and plan to further their education at some of the country’s top colleges.
Generazzo plans to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. He was also accepted into a number of other major colleges, including the U.S. Naval Academy.
Fermin spent some time deciding his future, but ultimately chose to attend Harvard University over Yale, his other top choice.
Both students said being a part of the JROTC program motivated them to do well in school and kept them on the right path. Fermin credits Generazzo for encouraging him to try JROTC because “it changed his life” and motivated him to strive for success.
“ROTC brought that out in me,” Fermin said. “It made me do things that I was uncomfortable with, like being a leader at a young age, which forced me to take charge.”
Generazzo joined the JROTC program as a freshman because he thought he would enjoy it. Eventually, he convinced Fermin to join as well, and the two have achieved major accomplishments within the program — the most recent of which was winning the 2021 Virtual Armed Dual Exhibition National Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Both are members of the JROTC Armed Drill Team, which won the 2017 National All Service Challenge Level Armed Drill Team Championship. They have each performed more than 100 hours of community service for the City of Lynn, English High, and local veterans’ agencies.
Fermin, the top student in his senior class, is a first-generation college student who has always dreamed about attending Harvard. A native of the Dominican Republic, Fermin’s family moved to Lynn when he was a child, and he fondly recalls visiting Harvard Yard, the historic park on the Ivy League school’s campus.
“I would think ‘wow, what does it take to get into one of these schools?’” Fermin said. “I would look around and just think ‘geez, this place is amazing.’ And then I would look back at my family, and they all finished high school and that’s pretty much it.”
For a long time, Fermin said he used to think that high school would mark the end of his education — until he visited Harvard Yard and saw his other options. It was then that he decided he would find a way to become the first member of his family to go to college.
Generazzo said the JROTC program taught him how to be a leader and pushed him to achieve his goals. He is the first of Sgt. Major Kenneth Oswald’s JROTC students to get accepted into the Air Force Academy and the second to get into the Naval Academy.
He said the program’s drill team has been fun, but demanding, saying that he doesn’t know what he would have done in high school without it.
“I think it was definitely one of the best decisions I made when I was a freshman,” he said.
Generazzo was originally planning to become an engineer, but was unsure of what he wanted to do after high school. Much of his plans were hinged on finances, in terms of how he would pay for his postsecondary education. This prompted him to look into joining the military in hopes of landing an ROTC scholarship. He said he was thrilled to learn about his acceptance into the Air Force Academy, which he felt would provide him with the best pathway to land a good job after graduation.
Both students said their families are overjoyed with their prestigious college acceptances, and thanked Oswald for pushing them to “work hard” during their time in the JROTC program.