Featured Firstie: 1/C Orieona Howard

  POSTED ON: Friday, February 10, 2023 11:16 AM by mediarelations@usna.edu

Today’s Firstie Friday is Midshipman 1st Class (senior) Orieona Howard from Newport, Rhode Island. A Navy Women’s Rugby player and member of 21st Company, Howard serves as Academics Officer for both her company and Fifth Batallion, creating study plans for her company and overseeing her battalion’s academic performance. 

Before USNA, Howard was an enlisted Electrician’s Mate Nuclear (EMN) and fully completed the nuclear training pipeline. As the first person in her family to graduate from high school and leave her hometown, enlisting in the U.S. Navy was her pathway out. During her enlistment, she wanted a bigger goal for herself and decided to apply to USNA to start her path to being a commissioned officer. Howard feels a sense of duty to the Navy for providing a career path outside of her hometown and for giving her a sense of duty to her siblings, who were following in her footsteps. 

Through her leadership experience on the Women’s Rugby Team and within her company, Howard believes the mission starts with its people. Leading by the quote by Lao Tzu, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists when his work is done, his aim fulfilled they will say: we did it ourselves.”

An avid reader and chess player, Howard is looking forward to her last semester and making last-minute memories with the friends she has made at USNA. She will commission into the SurfaceWarfare community in May 2023.

USNA

Category: Midshipman, General Interest