Anthony Eslao’s mother is a pediatrician. Back in 2018, she was conducting a routine physical for a young man who, she learned, needed it in order to join the Young Marines. She asked the kid more about the Young Marines, then came home and told her 11-year-old son all about it.
Last month, Eslao, now 17 years old, who’s a Santa Clarita resident and a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Young Marines in Castaic, was named a top-10 graduate from the National Leadership Academy’s advanced leadership school.
“It’s a very high-level academy,” Eslao told The Signal during a phone interview. “Everyone there is the top 0.5% of the (Young Marines) program. Graduating top-10 for me was very much a challenge.”
The Young Marines is a national youth organization made up of about 5,000 boys and girls from age 8 through high-school graduation. Some have compared the Young Marines to the Boy Scouts of America. Eslao said that, sure, the two youth groups are similar, but the Young Marines is more military-oriented in structure and ranking, with a primary focus on teaching leadership skills.
In July, over 50 Young Marines from around the country, according to Young Marines spokesman Abra Hogarth, gathered at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island, to participate in the 2024 Young Marines National Leadership Academy. The academy, the website indicates, “prides itself on introducing Young Marines to experiential learning mixed with self-discovery to challenge Young Marines in overcoming daily leadership tasks and the battle within themselves to make right decisions during tough situations.”
Eslao said the academy offers three levels of learning: the junior leadership school, where students learn what leadership is about, the senior leadership school, in which students act as leaders, and the advanced leadership school, geared toward teaching students how to train future motivators. He added that you must go through the junior and senior levels in order to participate in the advanced level.
According to Hogarth, the July event was solely for the senior leadership school and the advanced leadership school, with over 40 kids taking part in the advanced leadership program.
“I graduated seventh in my class,” Eslao said, “which I believe is pretty good. I believe I could’ve done better, but I’m still proud of where I got.”
According to a press release from the Young Marines, all top-10 graduates in this year’s program demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities.
“This graduation is an important time in the lives of these Young Marines,” retired Col. William Davis of the Marine Corps said in a statement. Davis, who’s also the national executive director and CEO of the Young Marines, added, “Coming from all social, economic and ethnic backgrounds from throughout the United States, their accomplishments are based entirely on merit.”
Eslao will be a senior at Golden Valley High School this fall. Upon graduation next May, he hopes to attend the United States Air Force Academy. He ultimately aspires to attend medical school and follow in his mother’s footsteps to become a pediatrician.
“Like my mom,” he said, “I want to be around our youth and help them medically, being a good doctor and mentor for them.”
The Young Marines was formed in 1959 with one unit and a handful of boys. The organization has since grown to over 200 units with 5,000 youth and 1,950 adult volunteers in 40 states, the District of Columbia, Japan and affiliates in a host of other countries. For more information about the organization, go to YoungMarines.org.
