Underway on Purpose: Rickover Naval Academy’s Class of 2026 graduates with $11 million in scholarships, military commitments and a charge to lead

CHICAGO – (May 21, 2026) – The Hyman G. Rickover Naval Academy Class of 2026 crossed the stage at Chicago’s Copernicus Center with more than diplomas. Its 111 graduates carried a record of scholarships, service, athletic achievement and postsecondary purpose into the next chapter of their lives.

At the school’s 18th commencement, faculty, families, friends and supporters gathered to honor cadets who had spent four years in a unique high school culture built on discipline, leadership and service. The ceremony opened with military precision and moved quickly into the deeper meaning of the evening: a Chicago class preparing to launch into college, military service, apprenticeships, work and citizenship.

Michael Biela, longtime superintendent of the Academy, welcomed the families, faculty and advocates who helped bring the graduates to this milestone. He paid tribute to the faculty and staff who “worked diligently with the class of ’26,” and he thanked family members whose “continual support” made graduation possible. Then he offered the cadets a line many parents understood before their children could: “Long days and short years.”

The phrase captured the quiet truth beneath the ceremony. Formation takes time, even when the years pass quickly. The long days of study, drill, practice, correction and encouragement had shaped ninth-graders into graduates. By commencement night, those long days had yielded something unmistakable: graduates who carried themselves with discipline, gratitude and purpose.

The numbers told part of that larger story. The Class of 2026 earned more than $11 million in scholarships. Ninety-four cadets are college-bound. Fifteen will enlist in the armed forces, including three in the Army, six in the Navy, one in the Marine Corps, three in the Air Force and two in the Coast Guard.

But Capt. Kerri Chase, commander of Navy Reserve Region Readiness and Mobilization Command Great Lakes, who gave this year’s commencement address, told the graduates that statistics alone could not measure what they had become.

“Tonight belongs to you, to your work,” Chase said. “Today you get underway.”

Chase used the language of the sea to frame a universal message. The graduates, she said, were not getting underway aboard a submarine or surface ship, but into adulthood— “into college, military service, work, family, citizenship, responsibility, and all the unknown waters that wait for you beyond the ceremony.”

Her address drew upon the legacy of Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, the immigrant, the Chicago public school graduate, engineer and naval officer who became known as the father of the nuclear Navy. Chase did not present Rickover as gentle or easy. She called him demanding, impatient with excuses and relentless because “serious responsibility requires serious preparation.”

“Rickover’s deepest legacy was not machinery,” Chase said. “His deepest legacy was standards.”

That theme became the moral center of the evening. Chase told cadets that leadership does not live in speeches, titles or rank. “Leadership is conduct,” she said. “Leadership is responsibility. Leadership is what you do when nobody is forcing you to do the right thing.”

The ceremony also recognized cadets whose work extended beyond the classroom. Several graduates earned the Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy, recognition for seniors who demonstrate the ability to communicate in two or more languages. Other awards honored service learning, leadership, perseverance and personal growth. Friends of Rickover, organized in 2010, was recognized for supporting opportunities such as STEM and leadership camps, college tours, computers, equipment, guest educators and student travel.

The Friends of Rickover Empowerment Award recognized cadets who demonstrated ethical decision-making, compassion, perseverance and intellectual and emotional growth. Finalists completed essays and interviews before an adult panel. Nancy Meyerson, founding member of the Friends of Rickover and presenter of the awards, said the “candidates understood that leadership requires listening, gratitude and finishing what one starts.”

Valedictorian cadet Battalion Commander Emily Ayala, who will attend the University of Illinois Chicago to study accounting and received a Presidential Scholarship, gave the evening its most personal moment. She thanked school leaders, instructors Chief Thomas and Chief Thompson, classmates and her mother, Leticia Ayala, whom she called her “biggest supporter” and “biggest inspiration.”

Ayala said her mother’s example shaped her ambition. She works full time, studies toward a bachelor’s degree in business management and continues to care for four children. “She showed me what it means to be a hard worker and has never let me think I couldn’t accomplish anything,” Ayala said.

Then she offered her classmates a family lesson made public: “What you did yesterday, do it better today.”

Ayala urged the graduates not to dwell on mistakes as they enter college, trade school, the workforce or the military. “We’ve all worked extremely hard to get where we are today,” she said, “and I know this is only the beginning.”

As the ceremony closed, the class received one final charge from Cmdr. Rose O’Carroll, commandant of the Academy: live by honor, courage and commitment; hold to higher standards; learn from failure; follow the honor code; and “learn to lead in order to serve.”

Chase had already given them their sailing orders.

“Do not drift,” she said. “Get underway on purpose.”