Brady Dearden has had the chance to experience it all — from traveling to South Korea, Switzerland, and Italy to flying helicopters to overcoming stringent physical and mental challenges — on his way to graduating first in his class at the nation’s top military school, West Point.
The High School South graduate has finished first in his class of 970 with the designation of a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Dearden explained that upon graduations, cadets receive a score — in this case, between 1 and 970 — that encompasses all aspects of their West Point education and training, including academic, physical, and military. So a valedictorian may have the highest academic grade in the class, but the ranking takes into account all factors, which put Dearden at first.
Dearden, 23, grew up in Texas, lived in Bermuda for two years, and moved to West Windsor with his family during eighth grade, before entering high school. Throughout his childhood, he played pee wee football, following in his father’s footsteps. When he got to West Windsor, his first memory was heading to football practice as a freshman at High School North (at the time, all incoming freshman were sent to North, which had just opened). After his freshman year, the class was split between the two high schools, and he was sent to South. He was also a member of the lacrosse and wrestling teams.
His parents both graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah. His father works in tax and insurance, and his mother taught elementary school until she began raising the family. Dearden has two siblings — a brother, Brooke, 21, and a sister, Brittain, 14, who will be finishing eighth grade at Grover Middle this year.
A well-rounded student-athlete, he is also a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints.
“An important part of my upbringing is my family; the other part is my church,” Dearden said. He recalls waking up early every day before school to attend seminary in the mornings from 6:15 to 7 a.m. everyday, and that his mother was a teacher at seminary for a while.
Dearden recalls one incident that pointed him in the direction of West Point.
A man at his church in Texas, Forrest Cook, had graduated from West Point and had engaged Dearden in a discussion about his time there. Dearden was so impressed, he looked up the school’s website when he got home and thought he might be interested in it. He talked some more with Cook about the school. “The more I talked to him, the more I thought great things about it,” he said. Dearden moved and fell out of touch with Cook.
From then on, though, the thought was always in the back of his mind. His mind was made up, however, after a visit to West Point. Dearden got into the school and finished two years of education before he made the decision to leave to go on a mission to Germany with his church.
While there, he realized that “life is about serving others, and in helping others, that’s where we are the happiest.” It strengthened his strength and also strengthened his desire and calling to serve his country in the army. He re-applied to West Point, and went back to finish the remaining two years of his education and training.
In the meantime, while re-applying, he found out that Cook — now a major in the army — had, by coincidence, become an instructor at West Point, and the two re-connected. “It couldn’t have worked out better,” Dearden said, adding that Cook became his sponsor family — a family that takes in a West Point student while he or she is attending the school.
While his faith may have unsuspectingly led him to his career choice, it also sustained him through the tough challenges. The first challenge, he said, was something familiar to most college students — homesickness. However, one of the biggest challenges “during the four years at West Point is working within the time constraints set by West Point,” Dearden says.
The school gives its students academic assignments, physical challenges, and at the same time, begins giving them military appointments — all of which they have to juggle at the same time. By a student’s sophomore year, those military assignments put each student in charge of one other student, and progress over time. Dearden says that by his senior year, he was directly in charge of 40 other students, which meant he had to take care of his own responsibilities and look out for them as well.
“My faith helped to strengthen me and gave me a great perspective in what I was learning,” he said. “It helped me through the rough time.”
In addition to his faith, however, Dearden says a major impact on his success was his schooling in the WW-P district. “I am very thankful for the job my teachers did in preparing me for a rigorous education at West Point,” he said, adding that when he got to West Point, he could see that his preparedness had been higher than that of other students. “I felt I wanted to do well, I had a desire to do well, and a hard work and great educational basis is what helped me to do well at West Point.”
Now that he has graduated, more is on the horizon for Dearden, who will be heading to Cambridge University to study international relations for one year. After that, he will be stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama, for about one-and-a-half years or so to learn how to fly helicopters for the Army, after which he will become a helicopter pilot for the rest of his career.
With all of his success, Dearden remains humble in his approach at life, saying he considers others’ actions who have touched his life. “I think that other people’s examples are what have formed me.”
