JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
Eighteen year-old David Zulli, son of Air Force chaplain Lt. Col. Daniel Zulli, who is stationed here, is this year’s winner of the Texas State Military Youth of the Year award.
The award, handed out by the Boys and Girls Club of America, recognized David for his outstanding public speaking, academics and character, and he will receive a $5,000 college scholarship.
“It’s definitely a big honor to represent JBSA-Lackland on the state level,” David said. “I’m lucky to be part of the community here.”
David, who competed against entries from across JBSA and other bases around the state, goes on to compete against winners from the 10-state Southwest region. If he wins there, David will compete at the national level.
At each level, contestants submit four essays, letters of recommendation from peers and mentors, give a speech and conduct an interview with a panel of Boys and Girls Club officials. The scholarship award increases from $5,000 to $10,000 at the regional level, and $100,000 at the national level.
Entrants are judged based on their personal stories of overcoming adversity, said David.
Currently a senior at John Jay Science and Engineering Academy, David has bounced across schools and continents several times due to his father’s career, which means changing social circles and communities several times, which can be hard for a teen.
“While I didn’t necessarily have an issue with moving, it still means social instability,” said David, who is now at his third high school in four years, and has lived as far away as Japan. “I had a difficult time fitting in to each new school.”
He credits the Boys and Girls Club here as a turning point in his life. The group helped him find a community with other military kids who had gone through similar experiences of changing schools and having to meet new friends.
“They helped me overcome that anxiety, that social fear, and now I’m a better leader, a better student, and I’m more involved in my community,” David noted. “I found out how to be resilient, and that’s the most important character trait for any military kid. At the age of three, it’s hard to understand why you’re moving around, but when you get older, you’ve had a lot of change happen during your formative years, so you need to find a way to process that.”
These days, you’ll find David hard at work with AP Chemistry, Biology and Statistics homework. He’s considering several universities, including University of Texas at Austin, Baylor and Rice. With all the science work David does, he is an avid photographer who likes to work with both landscapes and portraits.
David’s mother, Cindy, said her son was proof that military kids can thrive under constantly changing environments.
“We couldn’t be prouder of David,” Cindy said. “It’s hard enough to go through high school, much less in three different places. We recognize that he’s been gifted and resilient enough to handle what he’s been dealt.”
Cindy urged other military families to find on-base youth groups, like the Boys and Girls Club of America, for their kids.
“Every child needs to have an identity group: find yourself a small group on-base so you can interact with other kids who have gone through the same thing – that feel like you belong.”
David’s father, Daniel, is proud of his son for balancing the award application with the demands of school. He urged other military families to look to on-base communities for strength and support, much like David has.
“A military base is like an instant home, no matter where one goes,” Daniel said. “We just don't have the same feeling in most civilian arenas. Driving through the gate immediately makes you feel like you're home. And finding like-minded kids your age and demographic is very important. Military kids always bond together faster than kids on the outside.”
If other families can learn anything from David’s story, Daniel said, it’s that the military lifestyle isn’t an insurmountable challenge for a kid.
“The advice is to roll with it,” Daniel said. “You know that it will be hard, but moving around that much isn’t a show-stopper when it comes to life.”
With $5,000 of scholarship money now in hand, and potentially more on the way, David admitted heading to college this year will provide a new challenge: learning to stay put.
“It might only be for four years, but I’ll have to figure out how to stay in one town,” he laughed. “That should be a nice change of pace.”