A rebel son becomes a Rhodes scholar in military school

When his mother first dropped him off at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa., Westley Moore told her, "Why bother? I won't stay." As a 12-year-old, Mr. Moore recalls, "I was so disrespectful and insubordinate. Nobody could handle me."

True to his word, Moore ran away five times in his first four days at the academy. He and his teachers alike were ready to call it quits. But then a five-minute phone call with his mother changed everything, ultimately transforming him into one of the school's leaders - and its first Rhodes scholar.

His mother's words in those moments were simple but powerful. "She talked to me about the sacrifices she had made to send me to the school," he recalls. "She said that she would be so proud of me if I would just make even a small effort to try. I decided I could do that for her."

The biggest surprise for Moore was that when he did try, "it wasn't even hard."

In the past few years, there's been an upswing in the number of parents turning to military school as a solution for children with discipline problems. Certainly it is not a panacea, but for some students, the rigorous environment offers a new framework for success.

Before Valley Forge, Moore was a boy in trouble.

His father, a television reporter, died when Moore was only 3, and his mother, Joy (who now works as an executive at a nonprofit organization), struggled to raise him and his two sisters on her own.

The girls were both good students with positive attitudes, but Moore, the middle child, developed disciplinary and academic problems. In public school in the Bronx borough of New York, he gravitated toward other kids in trouble, and his grades slipped to Ds and Fs. A year at a nearby private school failed to loose the hold of negative habits and friendships.

Eventually, a colleague at work spoke to Moore's mother about Valley Forge Academy and the impact that military school can have on boys in need of discipline. The idea appealed to her. Without telling him her ultimate plan, she sent him to the school's four-week summer camp.

Moore enjoyed the camp. "I did paintball and go-carts. I thought that part was great," he says. "But when she told me she was sending me to the school, I said: 'No way!'"

In those days, Moore's dismal school record made an academic scholarship an impossibility. And although he displayed considerable athletic ability, his poor grades had kept him off school teams. The only way for his mother to cover the $20,000-plus annual tuition at Valley Forge was to take on another job and appeal to various close family members and friends for help. (At one point she worked three jobs to keep her son in school.)

But even after his tuition was covered, there remained the nagging problem of keeping Moore at the school.

The chaplain, Brig. Gen. Alfred Sanelli, says the school's formula for turning around rebellious boys doesn't succeed in every case. After Moore's rocky beginning, he says, "We thought he might just have to go."

But before putting him on the train back to New York, one of Moore's squad leaders suggested that he make a call to someone he cared about back home.

After that call to his mom, young Moore's turnaround was almost immediate.

"A lot of doors suddenly opened up for me," he says. "The first one was athletics. My grades had always kept me off teams, but when I could finally play and do well, it felt great."

Academics - after years of not applying himself - came more slowly. But the small classes at Valley Forge helped. "Once my teachers saw I was trying, they were really willing to work with me," he says. "They would say, for instance, 'I see you're having trouble with decimals. Stay after class and I'll help you.' "

But perhaps the biggest turning point, he says, was being given a new level of responsibility. Halfway through his first year, he and three other cadets were made assistant squad leaders. "That changed my whole mentality," he says. "I went at that moment from being a follower to being a leader."

After his successful first year, Valley Forge offered Moore scholarships, and he stayed on through his second year of college (the last year of instruction offered by the school). Starting in his sophomore year of high school, he was elected class president every year, and in his last year he became regimental commander, the highest honor the school bestows.

After Valley Forge, Moore went on to graduate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Before being selected as a Rhodes scholar, he won a fellowship from Princeton University that allowed him to travel to five countries, studying the impact of music on social change.

But there is an accomplishment that Moore is perhaps even more proud of: the establishment of STAND! (Students Taking a New Direction), a Baltimore-based project that teams up troubled young boys with college students who can tutor, coach, and befriend them.

The need for boys on the edge to receive such guidance is only too clear to Moore.

"The inner city is full of kids like me," he says - children who could learn to excel in life with the proper support and encouragement, but who might sink without that help. "I was blessed, and I want to give back."

Moore heads off to England's Oxford University this September - along with Chelsea Clinton - to begin a three-year doctoral program in international relations. Then he'll fulfill the military obligations from his ROTC college scholarship.

He hopes his mother will enjoy watching him continue to progress in life.

"She was proud of me, even when I didn't give her any reason to be," he says. "Now it's her turn to relax and smile."