R 221900Z FEB 13

ALCGPSC 028/13
SUBJ: COAST GUARD MEMBER TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE BGCA HALL OF FAME
1.  I am pleased to announce that the Boys and Girls Clubs of America
(BGCA) has invited CDR Robert L. Smith to be inducted into its
National Hall of Fame, Class of 2013.
2.  CDR Smith will be inducted into the BGCA Hall of Fame as part of
the National BGCA conference on 1 May 2013 at the World Center
Marriott in Orlando, FL.  He will join more than 150 other former
Boys and Girls Club members who have been recognized as leaders in
their fields, including Denzel Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Edward
James Olmos, Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, basketball great Michael
Jordan, baseball great Joe Morgan, and General Wesley Clark. He joins
Coast Guard Captain Daniel Travers as the second Coast Guardsman to
be inducted.
3.  CDR Smith is currently serving as the Executive Assistant to the
Deputy Commandant for Mission Support.  He credits a great deal of
his success in life to his early experience with the Boys and Girls
Club organization in Brooklyn, NY.  Three months after starting at
the Club, his academic performance improved so much that he was
placed in the top seventh grade class in his school and was
eventually advanced from the seventh grade directly into the ninth
grade.  When he entered high school he had the academic credits to
start as a sophomore.  What made this progression noteworthy was that
prior to his BGCA experience, he struggled with academics and had to
repeat the fourth grade.
4.  CDR Smith leveraged his BGCA experience to develop a life-long
passion for learning and a successful Coast Guard career.  He went on
to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from West
Virginia State College,  his Master of Science in
Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Capella University, and a
Master of Science in Instructional and Performance Technology from
Boise State  University.  He has only a dissertation to complete for
his PhD in Psychology from Capella University.  He is currently a
Captain-select and is the first Minority Officer Recruiting Effort
(MORE now CSPI) candidate to be selected for promotion to the rank of
Captain.
5.  CDR Smith exemplifies that positive direction and hard work can
lead to success, and that organizations like BGCA can open
productive, promising horizons for our youth.  We are proud of our
Shipmate and his pending induction into the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America Hall of Fame.
6.  The Coast Guard currently has four youth programs affiliated with
the Boys and Girls Clubs of America at AIRSTA Borinquen, AIRSTA Cape
Cod, TRACEN Petaluma, and BASE Kodiak.  Coast Guard active duty
members may also enroll their dependent children in local Boys and
Girls Clubs through the BGCA Mission Youth Outreach program and have
the Community Services Command (CSC) fund the enrollment fee.  For
information on the Mission Youth Outreach program, personnel are
encouraged to contact Mr. Gary Scheer at 757-842-4903. CSC continues
to expand Coast Guard affiliation and sponsorship of BGCA, with an
objective to increase the number of unit sponsored programs across
the Coast Guard.
7.  RDML Dave Callahan, Commander, CG Personnel Service Center,
sends.
8.  Internet release authorized.