Cadet Hurst, a member of the Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC), received the unit's meritorious achievement award after being credited with 14 rescues while lifeguarding over the summer, an NJROTC instructor said.

"Whenever I heard that I got approved for it, I was like, I was in shock, honestly," Cadet Hurst said, describing the award and her reaction upon learning she had been approved. "You get it through acts of, like, good, like, doing a good deed. I got meritorious achievement because over the summer, I was lifeguarding and I had saved 14 people."

An NJROTC instructor who has taught for 13 years said they had never before awarded the meritorious achievement ribbon to a cadet and emphasized the atypical nature of Hurst's actions. "I've been teaching for 13 years, and I have never seen this handed out to a cadet, in 13 years until now. And I've really never had a cadet who's done the type of stuff that Cadet Hurst has done this summer," the instructor said. "Not everyone jumps in, and not everyone does that. They look at the risk and say, maybe not me. I might just dial 911 and see what we can do. Maybe throw my life ring. But she just reacted. And not just once. She did it all summer. And she was credited with 14 rescues during the summer."

Cadet Hurst said the instinct to help extends beyond work: "I always wanna be that person who's gonna jump in, who's gonna help, who's gonna be the first person to be there and say, hey, do you need a hand?" She added that balancing school, a job and NJROTC responsibilities is demanding but manageable. The instructor framed the recognition as part of the program's role in developing civic responsibility: "I would like to think along the way she learned a little bit about, hey, this is part of our responsibility as citizens that we have to take care of each other... It makes them better citizens."

The transcript did not specify the cadet's first name, the exact locations of the rescues, or the agencies that responded during those incidents. The award cited in the meeting is described as "the highest ribbon you can achieve in NJROTC" in the program remarks.