Daphne Vargas, center, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas (right) talks with her former JROTC instructor, Doug Groters. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, center, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, talks with her former JROTC instructors, Doug Groters, CDR. U.S. Navy Retired, left, and Dennis Reynolds, CPO. U.S. Coast Guard, as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, right, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, talks to students in her former JROTC program as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, left, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, talks with her former JROTC instructor, Doug Groters, CDR. U.S. Navy Retired, as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, gets a hug from Latika Kemp as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. Kemp was in the Air Force and worked at the school when Vargas was a student. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, talks to students in her former JROTC program as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, talks to student Steven Grant, left, in her former JROTC program as she returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Daphne Vargas, center, a 2009 alum of Richards High School, returned to the school for a visit in Oak Lawn, IL, on Tuesday March 12, 2013. She was among the first students to join the school's U.S. Navy JROTC program, she became company commander and won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. She recently learned she was accepted to her first career choice: Marine Corps pilot. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media