Sedona Red Rock High School’s annual scholarship night was May 19, but graduating senior Ashley Calogero, a Cottonwood resident, had already secured several major scholarships to fund her college education, including a $80,000 Yellow Ribbon Program scholarship from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for being a dependent of a veteran, as well as a $24,000 Presidential Scholarship and a $5,000 Women of Excellence Scholarship.
Calogero will be using the awards to enroll at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus in the fall to study global security and intelligence studies with the goal of becoming an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force via the Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
“I have an older half-brother who’s in the Army right now to be an officer,” Calogero said, “It was mostly just my mom and hearing her stories of being at the academy and serving [in] the Air Force as well as my dad, I just found that passion to serve the nation.”
Her mother, Kathy Green, was a USAF flight surgeon for 24 years and her father, Pete Calogero, was a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot for 20 years.
Ashley Calogero said that she would like to focus on preventing acts of terrorism affecting the United States.
“I specifically want to work in intelligence because I like to tackle challenges,” Calogero said. “And essentially, what intelligence is is, you’re trying to find the pieces of a puzzle, per se, and piece them all together. And you’re working with different people from different fields across the world, and that excites me … And so I felt like that was just the best career for me.”
“Once I retire and serve all those years, I would hope to move to another agency such as the CIA or FBI, just to continue working,” Calogero added.
This was Calogero’s first year at SRRHS after her family relocated to Cottonwood from Destin, Fla., to be closer to relatives in Washington. Her younger sister Emily is a freshman at SRRHS. The family previously lived in Virginia, and Calogero was born in Maryland.
In addition to being a member of the Interact Club, student council and National Honor Society, Calogero and her sister are members of the Scorpions tennis team.
Calogero was named Athlete of the Month during the May 13 school board meeting and received the team’s Sportsmanship Award later that night at the Spring Sports Awards Banquet.
“Ashley was … voted to be team captain and was a consistent member of practice,” Head Coach Andrew Ellis said. “[She] tried hard all the time, great attitude, particularly in matches, just great sportsmanship … And she’s just a really great role model for the school and for tennis … Both her parents are retired service members, and I did our Junior ROTC in high school, and we were always taught to set the example and lead by example, and Ashley embodies that.”
Calogero posted a record of 7-2 in singles competition this tennis season and 4-5 with her sister Emily as her doubles partner. She also holds a second degree black belt in tae kwon do and has been practicing for 11 years.
“I’m very proud of how I played. I loved the team dynamic between the girls,” Calogero said. ”We got along so well, and we made a lot of great memories, especially during the away games … I like the competition because I get to go all out in every game and just play as hard and best as I can and [because] tennis is a bit more relaxed compared to tae kwon do tournaments.”
Calogero said that her weekends involve school assignments and reading classics such as Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” or drawing anime.
“My favorite anime is ‘Haikyu.’ It’s a volleyball anime. It was the first anime that my cousin introduced me to, and so it holds a special place in my heart,” Calogero said.
Calogero said that she and her mother had just returned from looking at the ERAU dorms and that she was excited to be graduating on May 21.
