John Eischer, a junior at Lutheran High School South, was invited to participate in the 2005 Summer Leaders Seminar at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Eight-hundred high school juniors about to enter their senior year were invited to the workshop based on a competitive basis using the academic, athletic and extracurricular information candidates provide in their Summer Leaders Seminar application form.

The weeklong program is comprised of academic workshops in which each student chooses four of 16 possible classes in various disciplines taught by academy instructors. Attendees also participate in military training, physical fitness training and intramural athletics under the leadership of West Point cadets, who serve as squad leaders for all aspects of the program.

Summer Leaders Seminar students live in the cadet barracks and eat in the cadet dining facility at Washington Hall. While their schedule is packed with a variety of educational activities, there is also time for fun, including tours of West Point and the West Point Museum along with a cadet-student mixer and a boat ride on the Hudson River.

Eischer is the son of Mark and Deb Eischer of Oakville.