Pacific West Academy Graduation Class 69 February - April 2025

All right. Welcome. Welcome. Good morning, graduates, friends, family, and everybody on the live stream. My name is Ethan White and I have the distinct honor of being the institutional director here at Pacific West Academy. Today is a celebration, not just of the accomplishments of the individuals that are seated here before us, but for what their achievements mean for our communities, our country, and our world. As we gather to honor the graduates of class 69, I want to reflect on why they are stepping into, why what they are stepping into is so profoundly important. We live in a world that is increasingly complex, with security challenges arising in forms we might not have imagined even a decade ago. Whether it’s protecting individuals, organizations, or communities, the need for skilled, prepared, and ethical protectors has never been greater.

At Pacific West Academy, we believe that providing you with the knowledge and skills to meet these challenges is not just our mission, it’s our responsibility. The Certified Executive Security Specialist Program is built on the understanding that the work you do matters. It isn’t just about securing a client or a property, it’s about creating peace of mind, upholding safety, and being a pillar of stability in uncertain times. Your hard work over the past many weeks, 348 hours of training, to be exact, has prepared you to serve not only as professionals in your field, but as leaders in a critical and honorable mission. At Pacific West Academy, we’re proud to be the only accredited institution offering this type of program, and that accreditation signifies more than just a standard of excellence and represents a commitment to equipping you with the tools to face the world’s challenges head on.

It is this commitment that has brought students from all across the United States to join our program, united by a shared dedication to a higher purpose. Class 69, your efforts over these weeks have been nothing short of extraordinary. You’ve pushed through rigorous training, honed your skills, and built bonds of trust and comradery with one another. Today, we celebrate your success, but we also celebrate what that success will mean for the people and the communities that you’ll go on to protect. As we begin today’s ceremony, I ask you all to reflect on the journey that’s brought you here and the vital role that these graduates will play in the world. Class 69, you’ve earned your place among the elite. Today is the start of a new chapter in your lives, and we’re proud to celebrate this moment with you. So congratulations, and let’s begin the ceremony. So I’m going to pass it off to Benji.

All right. Hi, I just want to kind of introduce myself to the friends and family and the people watching at home. My name is Benji Rosenfeld. I had the pleasure of being one of the instructors for, for this class. It was a real pleasure. I just kind of want to go through student by student, say some nice things, and really get into what the course is about. Like Ethen says, 348 hours of training. There’s no other program in the United States like it. So this is a very unique program, a very unique place with a very eclectic group of instructors who are 100% completely dedicated to the advancement of the students and the advancements of the organization as well. It’s very, very difficult. Most people who claim to be instructors in this industry work on the weekends. They’re seminar instructors. They teach once a month, a few times a month, several times a year.

Your instructors actually, well, you know what we do every morning, 7:30, sometimes five, six o’clock, depending on what’s going on, and really, really pushing and doing our best to set an example and to also demonstrate that we can also do the things that we’re asking you to do, that we can still do them and we do them at a high level. All of your instructors are active EP agents in the field. Some of us have very diverse backgrounds. Some of us started way at the bottom, some at the medium, some started right at the top. So we definitely have a very good mix of instructors here to give you guys a good perspective on what it is to be an agent in this industry and in the current world with everything that’s going on. So we really do kind of cover the whole gamut of security from driving to combatives, to shooting, to classroom, to medical.

We really do try to cover everything, and this is the only approved course that’s approved through the Department of Education. That’s where we are at. Edu. So I just kind of want to get into the students because this is kind of what the whole program is about. The program is really about the students and now I’m going to talk about all of you one by one. All right. This first student demonstrated great aptitude throughout the course. He’s definitely a strong performer. He demonstrated good academic knowledge in the classroom, showed toughness on the mats, made great improvements on the range. He also demonstrated great social intelligence, which for me is probably the biggest X factor for an agent out in the field. The client isn’t really super interested in how good you are at anything if they can’t trust you to behave properly in public around their friends, their family, especially their children.

So having good social intelligence, knowing how to behave is a very, very important factor in our industry and the student definitely has has that. And he definitely helps to keep things light with his great sense of humor, which really helped us throughout some of the longer days. He also has a tremendous student mentality. He really came ready to learn. He’s going to be a great asset to any security team that he finds himself in. He can do low pro, high pro, covert, and I’ve put him in touch with some people who are in the bounty hunting game since he demonstrated some interest in that. And I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t have 100% confidence in this individual. I’m talking about Mr. Erickson Garcia.

Thank you guys. I am so glad to have finally graduated and meeting a bunch of you guys and making those connections. It’s, it’s definitely been an amazing thing and meeting the instructors and broadening kind of my education and experience, and I can’t wait to connect with you guys in the future.

Yeah. In this class, we really had a lot of really tremendous students. It wasn’t necessarily a class where everyone came in and was an ex – MMA fighter or, you know, X this former that, so on and so forth, but everyone in this class really demonstrated super high aptitudes across the board, especially this next student we’re going to talk about. So he just demonstrated great attributes throughout the course, extremely well spoken and intelligent, necessary attributes for any agent. He also demonstrated tremendous toughness through all the physically demanding phases of the program. I got to find this out personally yesterday. He was the first person that got to go with me in sparring, and I did push him. I wanted to see what he was made of because ultimately you can always demonstrate good technique when there isn’t pressure on you.

But when someone is coming towards you and they want to see what it is that you actually have and they push you, that’s when you get to find out things about yourself and that’s where the person going against you also gets to find out things about you. Why do we spar so much in this course? Because if you really want to know about someone, you should fight them and you’ll find out everything you need to know. Now, obviously we have a little bit more of a controlled program going in here, but we definitely end up fighting in here. And it’s through that that we’re able to see really what’s on the inside of you and are you cut out to protect human beings, which is what we do here. So he never backed down from any challenge. He stepped forward to show that what he has and he did not disappoint.

He could excel as a great advanced man, close protection agent, definitely a tough customer, and he’s going to be a tremendous asset to his future clients. Talk about Mr. Nicholas Huston.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, I’m just really thankful to the school and all the instructors for everything that we got taught and I’m grateful to the classmates I had. It definitely felt a lot easier than it could have been just because I had a lot of people to lean on and a lot of other expertise and just people to help. So I appreciate you guys and thank you. Thank you.

All right. This next student came with a lot of previous experience in training and it showed at every phase of the training. He has a great demeanor for the job. He has a great ability to adapt. He also has a great temperament for the industry. He never gets too hot or too cold and is solution oriented. Observing him on the mats and on the range, you can see that he’s not bothered by significant challenges. And we threw some significant challenges at him yesterday. I put the biggest guy in the class right on top of him. And what’s interesting about him is that usually, especially myself, I have a, I’m about to quit face. Like you can kind of tell when I’m really struggling, my face is very expressive. This guy’s face never changed. It never looked like he was thinking about quitting any of those types of things. And he really, really kept pushing forward. He really has tremendous potential.

I even think he would be a great investigator. I think he could do great things in law enforcement. I’m hoping he sticks with security though, because he’s exactly where he needs to be in exactly the correct industry. So he’ll be a tremendous asset wherever he chooses to go and he’s definitely quite assertive and in control. I’m talking about Mr. Dayshawn McGee.

I want to say thank you to the instructors and other students here. I didn’t really, I guess, though I would get anything out of this course, but it’s a pleasure to be around people such as myself that are in the military because as you know, the civilian world does get kind of boring. So thank you to the students, the staff and the instructors.

All right. This next student is definitely a physical presence. He came into the course in tremendous physical condition. I think we introduced him to maybe some new forms of conditioning and fitness through the training that he received here on the mats and on the range. I’m thinking that perhaps he caught the martial arts bug, which we do love to see. He didn’t have a ton of training with Pistol before coming here. However, he did demonstrate a great student mentality, paid great attention all throughout the course, made tremendous strides at the most difficult phases of the training. And for some reason, when we were deciding how painful things are, he was the first guy to step up and really challenge, let’s see how much this actually hurts, which shows bravery, right? Which you also need in this job. He already stands out. He’s a high performer, tremendous social intelligence.

He’s going to be a presence and asset to wherever he goes and we’re very excited to see where he ends up in the industry. I’m talking about Mr. Camillo Love.

All right. Thank you. All right. So the class, you guys were amazing. All you guys, very friendly, very friendly group of people. And the instructors for all you guys, Matt, Aaron, Ethan, Benji, even Faraz, it was, it was, this was a really great experience. You know, you guys made it very entertaining two and a half months and everything we learned was pretty amazing. The medical, the range, the fighting. And so this is a really great program and I enjoyed it. And I enjoyed that I got to be with all of you guys.

Yeah. So this next student, another fantastic student, really a scrapper, but he came in with really great energy every day, which is what you need over a nine week course, don’t you? I mean, being in here with a bunch of negative people, negative students, we’ve had it before. We’ve experienced it. So the people who really bring good energy, good humor, and perform at a high level are really, really valuable to what we do here. So with this great sense of humor and social intelligence, definitely knows how to make friends fast. I think we all figured that out. He’s one of those guys who just seems to be able to do just about anything at a high level as long as he’s properly instructed. Definitely also showed great toughness on the mats, great strides on the range. And we talk about the range a lot because the range is extremely difficult and we have a very difficult course and it’s very complicated and very complex.

So we bring students who don’t always necessarily have the most experience at range, and in a relatively short period of time, we make them capable of moving through a shoot house of performing pretty sophisticated flat range drills, so on. So executive protection shooting drills, so on and so forth. And these are things that are not easy to do, and you do have to have a particular mindset and come in with a particular mindset in order to really excel at these things that we’re doing. Now, most of us have a lot of background. We have a lot of military, police, and security people. However, that doesn’t take away from the difficulty of it. Most of us have not experienced that level of sophistication on a range when we go train.

So the ability to do that and to stay focused and to maintain a good demeanor and also just a good presence amongst the classmate, classmates should be appreciated by the classmates, but also by the instructors as well. So I always really appreciate when we have people like him in here. So also, apparently I heard he had a lot of fun at the track, from what I understand, from what I heard. So we hope to see him out in the field one of these days and we know he’s going to do great things in the industry. I’m talking about Monte Monteville Sage.

I don’t really have a lot to say, but I want to thank all you guys for just making these two and a half months an awesome time, honestly. Also thank you to the instructors for, I brag about this all the time, I received better training here than I did while my five years in the military. So thank you guys. Thank you everyone and look forward to the future.

Okay, this next student was one of the younger guys that we had in the class and he came in really tremendous physical condition. However, what really stood out to me about the student was his true desire to understand the material, and that really stood out to the instructors. He wanted to understand every angle and really dive into the minutiae. So the, the intellectual curiosity with this student is going to take him very far because that’s really where it all starts with. That’s how you ended up here. You were curious, right? So curiosity is a very, very important thing, especially when we’re striving to learn new things. So I really recommend to the student to remain curious, okay, because it has led him down to good places like here at the academy. Also having this type of student who wants to understand these things keeps the instructor on his toes. He has to have good answers. He has to have good solutions.

It’s a, it’s a good type of demanding, right, that the student is. When the student asks questions that shows his level of interest and dedication. So for me, I am never bothered by a lot of questions, complex questions. You’re here to ask questions and to have questions answered. It’s why we came here. So this type of student is very, very much appreciated. Also, the fact that he’s already so into fitness we really think that with some additional combatives training and it just continues his training generally in medical, in pistol, in other academic pursuits as well he could really do tremendous things out in the field. Limitless potential and definitely a guy who’s quite assertive and in control. I’m talking about Mr. Joshua Olson.

How you doing guys? I just want to say thank you very much for taking me under your wing guiding me through the process, and I hope to keep in contact with you guys later down the road. Instructors, I also thank you guys for everything you did too. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right. This next student was a real pleasure to instruct. Highly focused individual. If you weren’t paying attention, you could miss him. You could miss him. But that is also something that’s very valuable in this industry. Sort of a, a gray man type. Not a big talker, but when he gets talking, he definitely has a lot to say. He’s another guy just came in super focused and he also asked a lot of questions, but the thing about him is that every time I looked up, he was paying attention just like he is right now. Isn’t that interesting? Every single time I looked over into the classroom, I’d look up, see who’s paying attention, see who’s falling asleep. And this individual was never too tired, never sleepy, 100% laser focused on what’s going on.

And that’s something that instructors really pay attention to because there’s talented people out there who can pay attention for a short period of time and then more or less do something, right? And those people kind of suck in a way, right, because most of us have to, have to try really hard to get good at things, right? And this guy also gets good at things very fast, but it’s through his focus. You also don’t need to train with him for very long to realize what he brings physically to the table. I mean, as someone who’s been doing this for a very long time, and I know I mentioned this during class, as someone who physically is disproportionately strong for, for his, for his size and what you look at. So he really is sort of an ultimate gray man type where you look at him and it’s hard to judge exactly what he brings to the table, but you do it at your own peril.

So another guy with a great personality, perfect temperament for the job. When clients are speaking to you, when people who are in charge of their lives are speaking to you, they like to have the feeling that you are paying attention, you’re focused to what they’re saying, because it is very important. Every second matters to the client. Any minute that he’s delayed through lack of focus through security is, is very bad for your, for your career. It just is. We have to keep them moving and we can never ever be an impediment to the client. And I don’t see this person being an impediment in any way to any to any client. So the perfect demeanor for the job, and it was a real pleasure to train him and he’s going to be a tremendous asset wherever he ends up. I’m talking about Mr. Julien Patton.

Nice Shoes for him. No, I’d like to thank all the instructors y’all brought me a long way. It was a long 10 weeks. I’m not going to lie. It was hard to get through, but we made it. We all made it together. Thanks for the classmates for for being there. Made some brothers out of all of you guys, so when we get back in the field, don’t hesitate to hit me up if y’all need some. If y’all in Vegas, make sure y’all come see me. That’s pretty much it. I appreciate y’all. And I’m always remember, keep your hands off the trigger. That’s My life. But Thank y’all.

You won’t forget this one. Don’t tell me what I saw and didn’t see. All right. Obviously we have, we, we have a good time out there, right? But having a good time on the range is secondary to safety, isn’t it? Right? But if we have some fun by accident, right, I won’t tell anybody. So this next student definitely the papa bear of the group. Anytime instructors needed anything he was someone that we could lean on. He displayed tremendous leadership throughout the course, already an experienced agent with a lot of time in the field, and it showed. I actually never felt compelled to ask him what his experience level was or whatever. I already knew he was an experienced guy just by noticing how he moved, how he moved through the course and how he behaved around his fellow students. I think we could all learn something from this student about demeanor, about temperament, and about representing yourself.

This individual carried himself with a lot of dignity and a lot of honor, and I think that we could learn a lot from an individual like this. Very mindful of how he became of how he behaves and what comes out of his mouth, which is the mark of a mature gentleman, which shows wisdom consistent with someone who’s seen a thing or two in his day. He clearly has all the intangibles. The instructors who train who trained and his classmates know that he’s a tremendous individual who continue to do great things in the field, and it was an honor for us to have played some role in his future endeavors. I’m talking about Mr. Shamell Peterkin.

Appreciate your thank you. Thank you gentlemen for gracing me with your presence. I really enjoyed this two and a half months with you guys. It’s hard for a lot of men, as we know, most of us being military experience, to come together and bond in the way we do a siblings fight, but it’s a, it’s a show of love. You know, if you go, if you don’t find some kind of discord with the people that you love, it may, you may not even love them. So I really appreciate everything that we went through in the last two months. Most importantly, I appreciate this academy and the instructors. You guys level of professionalism and knowledge in the base of the industry was amazing and it’s fully wrapped around. You guys complement each other in every aspect. And it was just amazing learning from all of you. I’m sorry that Ras can’t be here. Really enjoyed a magazine. But you guys, you guys are all amazing.

I really appreciate this academy and what you guys are doing, and I’m going to continue sending guys from our, from our organization back to you guys. I’m the third one to come through here. I’m glad I had the chance to experience it. I will send more people through here. Thank you very much.

All right. This next student came in with a lot of previous experience. Great combative back – combative background, which was obvious throughout the course. I can tell you in the seven years now it was actually seven years while you guys were in the course, the seven years that I’ve been on this side, on the training side, I have given a 100% in combatives less than five times, okay? Less than five times. So he’s got to be maybe only the fourth or fifth out of 13 or 1400 students that I’ve had the pleasure of teaching at this academy. So he’s in a, in a rarefied group, but 100% was the only grade that was suitable for this individual. Was also great in the classroom and the range, excellent weapon handling quickly and efficiently assimilated any training that was given to him. Very impressive individual who could excel as a covert advanced man, high profile protection agent. He could excel at either.

Also, like I, I should have saved it for the speech, but like I told him earlier, he’s the only student who I’ve ever shown something, demonstrated in class, and then turns around and shows me a video of him doing it live to someone. He did it on several different occasions. Really, really a butt kicker, a tough, tough guy. I, I got to spar him yesterday. Really, really brings a lot to the table. You better know what you’re doing if you encounter this this individual. He’s going to excel at whatever he wants to do. I hope he stays in the security field. He seems very passionate about it, and I think it’s a perfect fit for him. Talking about Mr. Alexander Segura.

Yeah, so first and foremost, everybody’s kind of said, thank you so much to the instructors, all the PWA personnel, all my brothers here that I met. I came here kind of because I just needed that sense of purpose, little W in the column, and I wanted to network with guys who were like-minded like me, and I 100% got that from all you guys. I learned something from every one of you. I hope you guys learned some stuff from me, whether it was with the hands or with the mind. Yeah, in any case, y’all have my back. I’ll have your back to the day I die, 100%, no matter what. I just want to say, be safe, but stay dangerous, boys.

All right. So this next student was a great student. I felt like I had a very good back and forth with him. He faced a lot of challenges while he was here at the academy. He maintained a full work schedule, full-time work schedule along with full-time training academy. That is not a easy thing to do. As someone who was a full-time security agent and a full-time university student, it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. Very, very difficult thing to be here and to also have to be somewhere else. So that’s very impressive that he was able to juggle those two worlds. It speaks to his strong desire to get ahead and excel in the industry. He already works in a very dangerous part of town. He works near 6th and Alvarado. If you’re from LA, you know where that is. It’s not just a great place to get a pastrami sandwich. It’s also a pretty dangerous part of town.

And he’s been working there as an armed agent, working graveyard shifts, working during the day and training here at the academy. We know that if he applies the lessons that he learned here at the academy, he’s going to advance very quickly to the top of his current organization. He’s also an LA guy, so that puts him near and dear to my heart. It can be a rough town sometimes, but this student will face it with quiet, assertive, and in control confidence. I’m talking about Mr. Fredrick Smith.

West LA to South Central, baby. I want to thank you guys, PWA, all the instructors. Yeah. Like he said, I was coming to work, going to work, coming here and it’s hard to maintain, but I did it. The range days I couldn’t get to, I missed, you know, Matt, coming to training baby. So eventually I’ll be coming to training. Yeah, I want to thank you guys. It was good working with you guys. Good, good brothers, good brothers, good brothers. This is just to begin. I want to thank y’all. Thank y’all. Thank you.

You got to protect the brand, Freddie. Protect the brand. So this next student, this guy was a really interesting guy, I got to say. It’s rare. It’s rare that I meet someone who really does have the warrior mentality and lives by it. This guy is straight out of Myamoto Musashi booked The Five Rings. He’s straight out of the Art of War. He really is one of those guys. He’s another guy that you could miss if you weren’t paying attention, which he uses to his advantage. So you underestimate him at your own peril. I was initially a little bit worried about him in combatives. I was putting him in here with all these big guys and every time I turned around, he seemed like he was doing just fine. So it was a very interesting guy in that sense.This student, I can tell you without any doubt, he does not care who or what is in front of him.

If this presents an obstacle, he’ll overcome it with toughness, tenacity, and a genuine disregard for his own personal safety, which that gets to, can you teach someone that, right? Can you teach someone to be that way? Can you teach someone to be tough? Can you teach someone and tell them, “Listen, what you’re about to do is extremely dangerous, okay? You, you could die, you could be badly injured.” And when someone looks back with that, “I could care less look in their eye,” it really says quite a bit about you because it’s one of the things that you can’t teach. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. I’m of the leaning that you probably can’t teach something like that. And there’s a lot of intangibles in this room right now that you can’t really teach and a, and a genuine disregard for your own personal safety for me is the ultimate mark of any warrior. So it was clear in the shoot house that he didn’t want to complete the exercise.

He wanted to hunt and neutralize the threat. It’s rare that I get that, that feeling. A lot of times in the shoot house, it’s complex, it’s new, and sometimes you forget what you’re doing and why you’re doing it and what is it that we’re learning to do right now because you just want to complete the exercise and be safe. But from watching this person on force and force on force, from watching them on the mats, from watching them go through the shoot house, this person wants to save life even if it’s to his own peril. And I don’t know if that’s something that we can, that you can be taught necessarily. It’s a rare combination of quiet, assertive and in control with just a spinkle, sprinkle of crazy. I’m talking about Mr. Zachary Taylor.

So I just want to say thank you to the instructors. Thank you to you guys here. I learned a lot and I’m going to carry that on in life. I have two more schools after this and everything I learned here, I’m going to bring that to the table and use that for the rest of my life. Thank you.

I mean, just look at him. You know what I mean? I mean. So this next student is another, he’s a real physical presence, really impressed all the way through. I’ve been dreading for the last nine weeks that I’m going to be sparring this guy or grappling with this guy or whatever. He’s one of these built like a fire hydrant types, which I really don’t enjoy training with. So I actually had the unpleasant experience of grappling with him yesterday. I won, but it was still very unpleasant, I have to tell you. So I’m pretty sure I saw my life flash before my eyes a couple times. Apart from his physical prowess, he demonstrated and embodied our core principles of quiet, assertive and in control. Tremendous potential backed by great academic and social intelligence. He’s a high performer. We have no doubt that he’s going to excel and do great things in the field. I’m talking about Mr. James Thomas.

I just want to say thank you all to all the instructors. I learned a lot from you guys. It was great coming here. I want to say thank you to all my classmates and stuff. It was really enjoyable. Couldn’t have asked for a better class. The camaraderie was built pretty quick and it carried on throughout the whole class. So just want to say thank, say thank you guys.

So this next, this next student was another guy who was a real pleasure to train. It’s rare I meet a guy with his historical knowledge of boxing. Being a boxing history fanatic myself and made it easy to get along. Definitely another guy who’s a big physical presence, has all the intangibles necessary to make a great career, extremely well liked by his classmates and definitely provided consistently great comedic relief, especially on some of these longer days. I mean, I think we all know who I’m talking about over here, right? Right. Just a real funny guy. And like I said earlier, we always need those guys in here. I don’t think it’s any secret that I can be a bit short. So having a guy like this with the comedic relief is really, really helpful. But he really displayed all of the intangibles. Really excel, like especially, you know, in combatants he was, he’s a tough customer to deal with.

But the range, you know, seeing, seeing a progression at the range like that, he already came in with pretty decent shooting skills, but I think he really got to another level and now it’s up to him to build on top of that level and to continue improving. So huge improvements. Also on the mats, I think we’re going to get him back out on the mats. He already had good experience there, but I think he’s going to be a little bit more consistent and you put all these things together, you put the social intelligence, you put the academic intelligence, you put the, the physical prowess around, around this individual and the sky is truly the limit. I’m talking about Mr. Dalton Thompson.

All right boys, I really enjoyed my time here. This is kind of like my last shot for the GI Bill. So I kind of had to make the most of it. No, you guys made it really great to be here. Thank you the instructors. You guys were awesome. I learned a lot. I’m going to take it with me. Thanks again.

Okay. So this next student, known as my mijo, this student was really exceptional all the way through. And yes, we did have some laughs at his expense. However, however, there’s no doubt about his abilities and potential. He came in with a good background in combatives. He hadn’t been training for a while, but we’re hoping he re-caught the combatives bug and gets back out onto the mats. We hope that he continues on that particular journey. Gave me a tough sparring session yesterday and I know I wasn’t the only one. Also showed some good grappling skills while on the mats. Also excelled at TECC driving in every academic iteration that we presented. A high performer with tremendous potential and also just a really good man. And of course, my mijo, Nicholas Velazquez.

All right. So first and foremost, thank you my wife and the rest of my family tree for showing up. Appreciate that. It was really nice to be a part of a brotherhood again. I mean, the military, you know, we all had different experiences, but the part I missed the most was like having another family. So it was really nice to spend all that time with you guys the last two and a half months, even though it was like 14 dudes in one house, feel like the barracks again, it’s cool. And to the instructors, it was awesome. Every, every one of you guys compliment each other. You guys all had like, were well skillful and very smart, but you guys all had different things that you guys brought to the table and it was awesome. So thank you.

I just want to thank you guys, myself personally. You guys were an exceptional class, not just a great class, but an exceptional class. I think you guys made some very good connections and did some good networking and now you’re also part of the Pacific West Academy family as well. And make sure that you’re always using us as resources. Any way that we can help you, we’re willing to help you. So please always keep us in mind, you need letters of recommendation and all those other things. Please please use us in that sense. However, I know I, and I know I said this yesterday, just always remember that you are who brings the value. You are who demonstrates the value of this academy. You can have all the instructors, all the best instructors, all the former this, all the X that. If the student does not go and use the training, if the student does not find the training easily to assimilate and to use in the field of what value are we?

And you can’t demonstrate how good these things are if they’re in fact, if it’s in fact not good information. So you do represent this academy now when you leave here. When you do well, it reflects upon us. When you do poorly, it also reflects upon us. You do represent yourself, but you do also represent your training and you do represent the other 13, 1400 students who’ve come through this academy and the over thousand agents that, that we’ve produced who are out there in the field right now. So you are what makes being a graduate of the Pacific West Academy valuable. It’s not something we can purchase. It’s not something that we can bring in. You are what brings it value. And always remember when you’re out there and you’re watching other agents, maybe not doing the job to a high level, maybe doing things that are contradictory to your training and that you know are wrong, okay?

Just remember that you are a graduate of the Pacific West Academy and you make it mean something. Thank you. Gentlemen, good morning. Morning.

All – Right. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Matt Chun. I have the privilege of being these guys, one of these guys’ instructors throughout their 10 weeks here. First off, I want to congratulate you guys. I’d like to give you guys a round of applause for graduating this 10 week program. Second off, I would like to congratulate and thank the families and friends that have showed up here and that are also tuning in on the live stream because at the end of the day, it’s their support that keeps us going as we know that. So let’s go ahead and give the family a round of applause as well. So at the end of every course, we also have to look at not just our personalities, but also our performance as a whole, right? And at the end of the day, this is still an academy, right? So we have a couple different things. We have our, our, our third place, which is going to be our gray man.

This is the person that we believe embodies a lot of this, but also doesn’t stand out and doesn’t kind of overshadow a lot of people, but also doesn’t hide in the crowd as well. Has a tremendous way of blending into their environment, but also performing at a high level. All right. From there we have our second place. It’s going to be second overall inside of the the academy based off of your grades. Again, it is based off of percentage, okay? Finally, we have our top gun, which is going to be the top of the class who performed at the highest level when it comes to that percentage. Now keep in mind none of this takes away from any of your guys’ professionalism, your work ethic and skillset. But again, it is an academy. All right.

So with that being said, our Gray Man Award, this student one, showcases a lot of skill, but can also blend into any environment, which I had the privilege of finding out at our FTX, especially finding him pop up on a social media post. This student’s going to be Mr. Alex Segura. It’s going to be for you. So inside of here, we have a couple different things. It’s going to be a couple of different pieces of kit, pieces of gear for you. Feel free to open it whenever you want.

But Just a little extra thank you for your performance in the, in the academy.ll. Our second overall inside of this program, the student was a phenomenal performer. Dude, if you bump into him, it feels like bumping into a wall. Absolutely. Performed very highly throughout the entire time inside of the course, Mr. James Thomas.

Thank You. Of course, man. All right. Our Top Gun Award is the person that performed the highest academically throughout the entire course. This is performance on the range, performance through medical, performance through combatives, performance on their tests and FTXs. Okay? This is a student that we believe embodies our motto of quiet, assertive, and in control. So with that, we’re going to go ahead and give away a Sunto core watch to our Top Gun. I spent a lot of time in the military running these. I’ve jumped, I’ve jived in the ocean with them. These things hold up and I still use it to this day. It has lasted me a long time. So we’re going to go ahead and provide one of these as well as a Top Gun plaque so they can hang it up inside the room and they can take pictures of it and send it in the group chat and be like, “Ha ha guys, I got it.” But ultimately, our Top Gun for class 69 with a 97.47 is going to be Mr. Nick Velasquez.

Feel free to say anything if you’d like.

No, I’m just playing. I’m real. I needed this W in the column, honestly. There was times where I didn’t really push myself to the, the best I could, but when I got to this academy, I really wanted to. And there’s a lot of you guys that have that same competitive nature. I mean, if it was for you guys pushing me, I mean, I still would have did it, but it’s all good. I Appreciate it. Thank you.

I’ll keep the watch. I don’t mind. I’ll keep it. All right. Gentlemen, again, I want to say congratulations. I also want to thank you for allowing myself and the rest of your instructors to come in here and do what we do best and what we love to do day in, day out. The class in itself is what dictates how well we can instruct. We’ll always give 100%, but if the class cares and is willing to learn and absorb information, we’re able to disseminate even more information. With that being said, don’t take this academy as this is the end of it. This is not the end of it. This is just the beginning. Okay? You are either getting better or you are getting worse. You don’t stay the same. Do not sit on the throne of experience of, “Oh, I did this in the military and that’s it. Oh, I went to Pacific West Academy and that’s it.” Every single one of your instructors, day in, day out, is constantly training their skillset.

Myself and Benji are constantly in a gym. All of your instructors are constantly inside of some kind of gym or doing some kind of training that pertains to their skillset. I’m shooting a match every week. I’m training every week. You are either getting better or you are getting worse. You do not stay the same. Continue to make yourselves an asset and not a liability. Everything that you learned here from myself and the rest of your instructors is not just to teach you how to protect a client, it’s to teach you how to protect yourself and the people around you because ultimately we are the protectors. So continue being an asset and not a liability gentleman. Congratulations. Thank you.

All right. We’re almost done. So as we come to the conclusion of this momentous ceremony, I want to take a moment to reflect on the significance of today and the people who helped make it possible. So first and foremost, the family and friends of our graduates that are here on the live stream, back at home, your support, encouragement and sacrifices have been invaluable. Behind every single graduate is a network of loved ones who have provided strength and motivation through every challenge. So today, let’s celebrate not just our graduates, but our friends and family. To our exceptional instructors, especially our head instructors, we have a Benji, Matt, Aaron, your knowledge, dedication and leadership have transformed these students into professionals ready to take on the world. You’ve done more than teach skills.

You’ve instilled the principles of quiet confidence, assertiveness and control that define the PWA model and our foundation of training. Join me applauding. And to our administrative team who are tirelessly working behind the scenes, our Christina, our student services coordinator. Yeah. Mari and John in admissions. Jordan, our director of marketing. And then Omer and Andrea, our director of administration, your leadership in detail keep everything running seamlessly. So let’s one more round of applause. All right. Graduates of class 69, you now join the ranks of an elite group of certified executive security specialists. You represent PWA in everything you do from this day forward. The values you’ve embraced, quiet, assertive and control are not just words, they’re principles that will guide you in your careers and your life. They’re qualities that set you apart and prepare you to excel in this vital and challenging field.

But let me remind you, like they’ve said before, this is not the end of your relationship with us. Whether it’s to check in, to give us an update, nothing makes us happier than a text that says, “I got this job,” or, “I did this really cool thing.” And we’re here to help with whatever you need from here on forward, okay? As you leave here today, I urge you to carry the lessons you’ve learned and the principles you’ve cultivated into everything you do. The world needs protectors, those who bring safe safety, stability, and integrity to every situation. Be proud of what you’ve achieved and know that we are proud of you. So go forward with confidence, knowing you’re equipped not only with the skills, but also with the character to make a lasting impact. You are quiet, assertive, and in control of what you do next. So congratulations class of 69. The future’s yours. Go make your mark.