Welcome to the Service Academy Sorority – a space where women that have graduated from the Service Academies can share their stories and build a sense of camaraderie and sisterhood.
Each episode will feature one person’s personal journey. We’ll dive into details about how and why they chose a Service Academy, the highs and lows of their time at the Academy, what they’ve done and where they hope to go post graduation.
The podcast will feature graduates at every level of experience, from the recent graduate to those with decades of career experience. The common bond we share is our time at the Academy, so the goal is to highlight that bond at every stage and facilitate connection and support across generations of graduates.
While I’ll save the details of my own personal journey for a future episode, I do want to give you some context about who I am and why I’m doing this – so here are the Cliff Notes.
My name is Victoria Adams – formerly, Victoria Gigante. I’m a 2004 graduate from USMMA and have served as a counselor and coach to service academy students and graduates since 2005, both as the Director of the Academic Center for Excellence at Kings Point as well as independently.
I hold a double Master’s in Psychological Counseling, am a trained Yoga Therapist and Certified Career Counselor.
Like many women I’ve spoken to, the decision to attend a service academy is one of the things I’m most proud of in my life. However, my experiences both at the academy and beyond are definitely mixed with highs and lows. From struggling with eating issues, to feeling isolated from other women, to marrying and eventually divorcing a classmate, to learning how to navigate a career transition post graduation – it’s definitely been a roller coaster!
But I’ve never regretted my decision to attend an Academy and view it as a pivotal role in providing a strong foundation for both my personal and professional development.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with many women that have graduated from a service academy – and overwhelmingly the message has been that they wish they’d formed stronger bonds with the women in their class.
In addition, I noticed a pattern emerging: that while we all have our own journey and experiences, there are common threads weaved amongst all of our stories.
The goal of this platform is to serve as a means for those stories to finally be told – to provide each of my service academy sisters a space to use their voice. Through hearing the stories of others, the hope is that we start to fully understand that we’re not alone – that we have more in common than we thought – and that we’ve all been part of this silent sorority of service academy women doing amazing things.
Let’s not be silent anymore!
I hope you’ve been inspired to own your path – share your experiences – and to form deeper connections with the rest of your service academy sisters.
Have a listen to Episode 25 of the podcast to learn more about Victoria’s personal journey!