Pacific West Academy Graduation Class 71 April - June 2025

All right. Good morning, graduates, family, and friends. My name is Ethan White, and I have the honor of being the institutional director here at PWA at Pacific West Academy. And today’s a day of celebration, not just for the accomplishments of the individuals seated before us, but for what their achievements mean for our communities, our country, and the world. As we gather to honor the graduates of class 71, I want to reflect on why the role they’re stepping into is so profoundly important now more than ever. We live in a world that’s increasingly becoming complex. 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’s not just about securing a client or property. It’s about creating peace of mind, upholding safety, and being a pillar of stability in uncertain times. Your hard work over these past many weeks has prepared you to serve not only as professionals in your field, but also as leaders in a critical and honorable mission. It 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 US to join our program unified by a shared dedication to a higher purpose.

Class 71, 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 camaraderie with one another. And today, we want to celebrate that success. But we also want to celebrate what that success will mean for the people and communities you’re going to go on to protect. And as we begin today’s ceremony, I ask everyone here to reflect on the journey that’s brought us here and the vital role that these graduates will play in the world. Class 71, you’ve earned your place among the elite and 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. Pass it off to Benji who’s going to go ahead and introduce your class.

Good morning everyone look watching this at home and welcome to our family and friends who have come over here to u celebrate this occasion. I’m Benji Rosenfeld. I’m one of the instructors here at Pacific West Academy. I kind of have my hand in a lot of different parts of the program, but my real thing is here in combatives here on the mats. And I think it’s really appropriate that we happen to be sitting where we really get to know each other, right? This is where we do our combatives. This is where we roll our mats out. And this is where I get to meet the real you. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy my job. I’ve been here. This is class 71. They’re my 66th class. So, I’ve been here since class five, so class 66. And after every combat final, I always promise myself I’m not going to participate in the combatives final again. You know, I don’t I’m almost 40.

I don’t really need to be getting hit in the head anymore or in the body or anywhere really. I don’t really need to be getting hit anymore, but I don’t really feel that I get to meet the real you unless we fight. That’s really the best way to get to know someone. And wise man told me long long time ago, you want to get to know somebody, fight them. It’ll tell you everything you need to know about them. Now, obviously, we’re training here. We’re not really trying to kill each other, but it got kind of intense just a little bit yesterday, right? Which is what we need. And what do I mean by get to know who you are? When you’re inside air conditioning and you’re looking good and you’re feeling good and no one is trying to get you. That’s sort of easy. That’s sort of baseline.

Everybody in society sort of gets to experience that baseline daily and for 99% of their lives that’s what they get to experience but you’ve chosen a different path where you get to find out things about yourself and your instructors get to find out real things about you. So I feel like I get to really really get to know you guys while you’re here on the mats and on the range and all throughout the program. It’s a very difficult program. We push the students very very hard. We don’t necessarily have to. We could certainly take a softer approach to training and we’ve even discussed this sort of thing, but we have a particular character that we want to maintain here at this academy. And a part of the character is the physicality. I don’t think anyone wants a protector who doesn’t know what it’s like to get punched in the face. I don’t think anybody wants that. And I think that we definitely provide that level of physicality here.

And we do make sure that whatever these guys want to do with their life that they’re ready to confront some of the challenges that confront people like us who choose to do this type of work. So now I’m just going to talk briefly about these four here. It was a really really good group. I really enjoyed having this smaller class. It’s been many years since we had a smaller class like this. And I really really enjoyed it. I really feel like we got to have a good cohesive unit here and we also got to give a lot of very direct instruction and we were able to get a lot of people up to a very high level considering how small the class was and we even got to cover material in combatives on the range and even in the classroom that we’re not typically able to get to. So these guys got a really good dose of our culture here at Pacific West Academy. So now I’m just going to quickly talk about our four graduates here real quick.

So our first student, I’ll tell you who it is at the end. Excellent student, made big strides while here at the academy. Very good athlete, very smart, plenty of toughness. I saw it yesterday. I saw it all throughout the course. Big athletic, tough guy. What you guys did yesterday is not easy. Most people, you know, could not do it. Most people, you know, would break in the first five minutes. Maybe three, maybe two. It’s not a simple thing. And the fact that at this point in your life, you’ve you’ve chosen to come here and subject yourself to something like this says a lot about this student’s character and all of the students who came here to participate. He also displayed excellent intellectual abilities which showed in the classroom and during FTX’s in particular that he and his team executed massive potential.

He already had a successful career in sales going but like most of us found that type of work is while profitable is simply not consistent with his worldview. I had the pleasure of meeting this student’s mother just a couple minutes ago and within one minute of the conversation she said well he’s a protector. Well he’s a protector. Well mom knows best. Mom knows you better than I do. So I’m going to go ahead and side with mom. And she’s right. When you when the student had told me what he had been doing with his career and that he was doing perfectly fine and chose to come here anyway, I think that really spoke to his character and his burning desire to protect human beings. Money is no substitute for what one should really be doing with their time on this earth. In other words, like we said, he’s a protector.

Like most of us, he can’t explain why exactly protection is his calling, but he feels it deep inside, which brought him here to PWA. We’re lucky to have had him here as a student, and we’re all going to be a little bit safer with him out there doing what he was born to do. Talking about Mr. Deric Hammock.

Thank you. I did not know I was going to speak today so I did not prepare anything. So do not judge me if this is not perfect. But I’m very grateful to be here. These are great people. I’ve never met like honestly the teachers are fantastic instructors are well versed. They know exactly what to do and I’m very proud to be a part of this program. So thank you very much. All

Right, this next student, very talented guy, a real Renaissance man. He can dance your head off or box your head off. You get to pick. I was sometimes referred to as a Renaissance man myself. We have talents outside of what we typically do. It’s a very unique combo by the way to be able to dance and box. I know people say that boxing is a bit of a dance. I box very well. I cannot dance. So, it is a very rare combination indeed. This student, he came to us from the Windy City with the intention of building a security program for his community center and place of worship. He came as a blank slate and completed all of his tasks to a high level. Protectors come in all shapes and sizes and career paths. It’s the urge to protect that brought him here, and we’re glad that he chose us.

We know that he’ll represent his training to the highest and will keep his people safe with what he learned here and with what was already there, the burning desire to protect. I’m talking about Mr. Allen Washington. My way. This, was one of the most impactful experiences to date. Not only did I get to come here and meet some new lifetime friends, but I don’t think, you know, God makes mistakes. I think the universe is very intentional. My best friend being one of the instructors. I’m just I’m happy that I got the opportunity to see him in his world. I’m happy that I got to meet some some of the brothers that make this world up as well. And this this has just been this has been amazing. So, man, I’m beyond grateful. This is a life-changing experience. And thank you All right, this next student is straight out of a western. If the bandits pull into town and all the sheriffs flee, we know he’ll be the one to get his high noon on.

We know that for sure. This student came to this academy with very difficult and painful injuries. It did not stop him at any point during the program from completing everything that was asked of him. To persevere through our combatives program, our range program, the entire program as a whole, and the final with such substantial injuries is no small feat and really speaks to this person’s character. You don’t have to come here and you don’t have to participate to such a high level. I could ask you to do something. You tell me, you know what? I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to spar this guy. I’m not going to grapple this guy. I’m not going to run into that room and engage in force on force. You could tell us that it’ll affect your grade, but you know, most likely we wouldn’t kick you out. So, it’s an option. It’s a choice, isn’t it?

It’s a choice to come and to engage in this type of training which with this person’s severe injuries was very very very impressive. He made big strides on the range and on the mats and was excellent when he was put during the test during the FTX. We also had a bit of a sparring match yesterday that was very very good. I got to meet the real you. And turns out the real you keeps on coming, which I still don’t know after all these years if that’s something that you can teach someone how to do. I don’t know if you’re born with it. I don’t know if you learn how to do it. I don’t know. But what I do know is that some people have it and some people don’t. They just don’t. They crumble. They fall apart. They don’t get back up. They stay down and they kind of just wait for other people to step forward and do what they need to do. Not this individual. Always rises to the occasion. He will be a tremendous asset on any security team in the world.

And we were lucky to have him as a student. I’m talking about Mr. Nathan Kelly.

I would just like to thank my wife and kids for being here. They’re not physically here because we live really far away, but they’re all watching right now. So, All right. And last but not least, this next student, quite the character. I’ve never met a French country boy from San Diego before. And I’ve lived here my and I’ve lived here my entire life. A rare breed indeed. One of the most well-read students I’ve ever met who’s ever come through this academy. Very, very well read. I kept kind of throwing probing questions in there and stuff like that. Turns out he’s cracked a book or two in his life. And I think we discussed the importance of reading, the importance of being intellectually active. And it’s through these through it’s through our intellect that we’re also able to make people feel safe and at home. The days of the meathead bodyguard are over. They’re over.

You need to be able to interact at a high level with very intelligent, very successful people that demand intelligence from the people around them. And we discussed this at length while you were here at the academy. We really talked about history a lot. He demonstrated a vast knowledge on many different subjects, showed real potential on the mats and on the range. He probably doesn’t feel the potential, but I can see the potential. And you need to listen to me on this one, okay? You have tremendous, tremendous potential in whatever you want to do. The classroom was easy for you. His ability to quickly learn and apply newly learned skills was very, very impressive. He can do whatever he wants in this industry. You could do whatever you wanted in any industry you want. You have the intellect. You want to be a doctor, you could be a doctor. You want to be a lawyer, no problem.

You want to be an accountant, all those things would be very easy. And you could do it and you could succeed at it and you could do make plenty of money but you will feel empty. You will feel something is missing. Many of the instructors we’ve gone into other fields. I was out of the security game for five or six years with almost no intention of coming back but I always felt like something was missing. Money is great for sure. Okay, there’s other ways to make money. There’s other ways to make more money. Money is an amazing thing. But when what you do for that money is not consistent with what you were designed to do, you will feel a void. So, not just you, but all of you. You need to stay inside of this industry because this is what you were born to do. I saw it. I don’t say it to everyone, but there’s only four of you this time. So, we can talk about this thing. If he remains focused, he can do whatever he wants in this field.

And you need to understand and he needs to understand that you can’t outrun who you are, which is a protector. I’m talking about Mr. Peter Perrault.

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten a plaque in my life. I got to say, I’ve always been kind of the guy odd guy out stay on my own. But coming here is the first time I’ve ever found true community. I love all of you guys. I love the instructors. This the community I found here is the exact reason that I’m moving here and I’m going to work for these guys. Great. Thank you. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, that’s all I got. This is my portion. I wish you all good fortune, strength, and honor. Long live the fighters, okay? Which is what you are. You’re exactly where you need to be. Don’t doubt it. Don’t think about the money, at least not right away, okay? Don’t think about the money too much. You’re doing what you were born to do. That is what I think. I mean, I’ve like I said, I’ve thought about it many times. Are you born with it? Is it something that happened to you?

It appears that this group was born to do this job, to protect people, human beings, which is what we do. We protect property as well, but I don’t think anybody’s got into this game in order to protect property. We got in this to protect our fellow Americans and our fellow human beings who are the people that we’re going to be paid to overlook or overwatch. So, I wish you all a lot of good luck. It was a real blast. I really enjoy training you guys a lot. I know I’m going to see you guys in the field one day. I know I’ll be seeing you over at your community center, your place of worship, and I’m going to give you a full inspection. And that place better be real nice and safe when I go over there. I know a lot of you guys are also staying in the area. Whatever you guys need from Pacific West Academy, whatever you guys need from me, you guys have my number. You can call me whenever you need me for whatever.

I think we really formed a nice little goon squad here. Okay. And let’s let’s stay in touch. Let’s keep it up and go out there and protect somebody. I had to give these now. All right, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. For those that don’t know me, my name is Matt Cheun. I am one of the instructors here. For those that do know me, please keep your mouth shut about me. Okay. With that being said, gentlemen, first off, I would like to congratulate you all for accomplishing the task of our certified executive specialist program. Second off, I’d like to thank the family and friends that have showed up because without you guys, they would not be able to stay as focused. So, with your support, they’ve been able to stay focused and accomplish their goals as well. So, let’s give it a round of applause for the family.

Now, ultimately, we are still a school, so a lot of things come down to academics and grades and things like that. And so for every class, we typically have a Top Gun award. The top gun award is presented to the student that has the highest GPA and the highest percentage inside of the grade book. Ultimately, everything comes down to performance. Now, this isn’t a knock on, you know, whether you’re a good performer or a bad performer, but simply it all came down to their performance and their grades. So, with that being said, the Top Gun award, they are going to receive a plaque that has their name on it and states that they are Top Gun. They are also going to receive a Suunto Core watch. I’ve used these a lot in the military. I’ve jumped with them. I’ve dived with them. This is probably one of my favorite watches, especially when it comes to anything active. So, we’re going to go ahead and get that. Aside from the plaque.

So with that being said, the Top Gun Award for class 71 is going to be Mr. Nathan Kelly.

You have anything to say, feel free. I just wanted to say to everybody here, especially Allen, the fact that he came here without any military or background in this and did as well as he did is absolutely amazing. And thank you all,

Gentlemen. Congratulations again. The biggest advice that I would say is do not sit on a throne of experience. Don’t leave here and go, “Oh, I went through PWA. I know everything there is to know at this point.” In order to be an expert in this industry, it’s not about how much you don’t have to know. In order to be an expert in anything, it’s about how much do I have to know. Continue to be a student. Continue to train. You are either getting better or you are getting worse. There is no staying exactly where I’m at. Continue to train. Get inside of a gym. Hit the range. Continue learning more skills. Continue to be an asset, not a liability. Gentlemen, congratulations.

All right. So, as we come to the conclusion of this momentous ceremony, I just want to take a moment to reflect on the significance of the day of today and the people who made it possible. So, first and foremost, to the family and friends of our graduates and the people on the live stream, thank you. Your support, encouragement, and sacrifices have been invaluable. Behind every one of these graduates is a network of loved ones who provided strength and motivation through every challenge. And today, we celebrate not just these graduates, but the unwavering support that brought them here. So, thank you. And then to our exceptional instructors, especially our head instructors, Benji and Matt. 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, assertive, and in control.

And the that define our PWA motto and the foundation of our trainings. Thank you. And then to our administrative team who are always working tirelessly behind the scenes, we’ve got Christina, our student services coordinator, Mari and John in admissions, Jordan, our director of marketing, Omer, who just kind of does a little bit of everything, and Andrea, our director of administration. Your leadership and attention to detail is what makes everything possible here. So, thank you. All right, graduates of class 71. You now join the ranks of an elite group of certified executive security specialists. You now represent PWA in everything you do from this day forward. The values you’ve embraced, quiet, assertive, and in control. They’re not just words. They’re principles that will guide you in your careers and in 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, this is not the end of your relationship with us, okay? You’re now part of our family and we’re here to support you as you continue to grow and succeed. Whether you’re seeking guidance, additional training, or if you just want to pop in and say something cool that’s happened, we’re always here and you always have a home with us. And 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 safety, stability, and integrity to every situation. Be proud of what you’ve achieved and know that we are very proud of you. So go forward with confidence knowing that you’re equipped not only with the skills but also with the character to make a lasting impact. You are quiet, assertive, and now you’re in control of what you do next. So congratulations class 71. The future’s yours. Now go and make your mark.