HARTFORD, Conn. — One of the earliest female graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy returned Friday to take over its top spot, becoming the first woman selected to lead one of the nation’s five military service academies.
Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz was installed as the academy’s 40th superintendent in a change-of-command ceremony Friday on the New London campus. She graduated from the academy in 1982, the third class to include female cadets.
Stosz takes over at the Coast Guard Academy amid a push to draw more women and members of underrepresented minority groups into the cadet corps.
This fall’s incoming class has the most cultural and ethnic diversity in the academy’s history.
“We’ve come a long way and I’m proud to be a role model,” Stosz said Thursday. “But this really is part of a natural progression.”
The academy has about 1,030 cadets in its four- year program. Students graduate with a bachelor’s degree and an obligation to serve five years in the Coast Guard. Many, like Stosz, make it their career.
