Heroes & Heritage Student Leadership Summit and Career Fair will hold a student educational and leadership program on Wednesday, March 1. Fernando Rey, President and CEO is excited about bringing this program out of San Antonio and into this community. This is an outreach program designed to introduce veterans, wounded warriors, minority high school, university students and students with disabilities from under-served communities to career opportunities in the corporate world, the Department of Defense workforce, federal agencies, and uniformed services.

“Our mission is to provide information about career opportunity, internships, and college assistance on behalf of the federal agencies in and around the country,” Rey said. “We believe that leadership development is critical and it means a lot.”

Rey’s program will provide the school with knowledge about jobs and career opportunities in the Federal government. The Coast Guard will be leading the presentation, reaching out to students about opportunities in the military and civil service.

“We will be here on March 1, with all of you and with us is going to be the United States Coast Guard,” Rey said. “The Coast Guard is significant because they are the most involved and are a critical need agency.”

This outreach program answers questions and assists students to tap into a career path that interests them.

“Most often we have found that students just don’t have any knowledge of these career and they don’t have any knowledge about the federal agencies at all,” Rey said.

Even if you aren’t planning on going into a military field you can still benefit from going to this presentation.

“The program isn’t for military service, for the most part, 80 percent of what the Coast Guard does has to do with rescue missions,” Rey said. “If a student says ‘I don’t want to be in the military’ most of the time when you define the military you think about wearing a uniform to go to war, and that’s not what we do. Our emphasis is on federal career opportunities.”

The Coast Guard covers a wide range of things within the country that doesn’t pertain to being in the military.

“Think of tragedies like fires, hurricanes, and floods,” Rey said. “Those are the kind of wars the Coast Guard is engaged in.”

Rey received a letter from the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, saying that he should bring the program to the Media County area.

“The volume of work has increased dramatically so they are encouraging students to consider going into this line of work,” Rey said. “The befits are incredible. The biggest benefit I think is that you know you are helping other people in your community and that is very rewarding.”

The Heroes and Heritage program was started in 1995 by the former director of the United States Selective Service and then turned the organization over to Rey in 2000.

“We began to restructure it so that we could have an outreach program for Texas students,” Rey said. “We have reached out to thousands of students.”

On March 1, students will have the opportunity to witness and participate in this presentation put on by Heroes and Heritage.

“The reason that we visit with students within the state of Texas is because we believe in leadership development and that starts now,” Rey said. “We are here to provide detailed information on these issues to students so you can make your own intelligent decision and evaluates if this is the kind of think you want to pursue.”