Minority recruitment creating 'a new Coast Guard'

Minority recruitment creating 'a new Coast Guard'
By JENNIFER MCDERMOTT
The Day
New London, Conn.
Published: September 17, 2012

A year ago Ellis James had never even heard of an alidade, much less imagined he'd be peering through one on the deck of a Coast Guard ship.

No one in his family has served in the military, and he planned to be an accountant.

Yet Sunday on the bridge of the Coast Guard barque Eagle, James was using the instrument that determines bearings to spot fixed points on the Connecticut shoreline and calculate the ship's distance from them.

"I had no clue I would be doing this at all," said James, 23, of Jamesville, N.C. "But I've learned so much and I've seen so much already. It has me. It has a hold on me."

An academic standout at Fayetteville State University, James interned at the national professional association for certified public accountants and worked with the local chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants.

James' life changed course when he learned about a Coast Guard recruiting program that pays select juniors and seniors a salary and reimburses up to two years of tuition at historically black colleges and universities, as well as Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and schools in Guam, Hawaii and Alaska. No one could beat that offer, James said.
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