Jacob James is a junior at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), where he is majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Spanish, natural extensions of his lifelong loves of all things nerd and travel. Jacob grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where his law enforcement family instilled in him from an early age the importance of service to others. He amassed 250 service hours volunteering in his community in high school while competing in baseball, swimming, golf and chess; leading his Air Force JROTC unit; and serving as Student Body President at Abraham Lincoln High School. He graduated with honors with the ALHS Class of 2020 before heading off to join the USAFA Class of 2024. Jacob caught the language bug by regularly speaking Spanish with his bilingual father at home growing up, then got the opportunity to polish his language skills when USAFA sent him to study abroad in Nerja, Spain in 2022. Jacob is a member of the Precision Flying Team at USAFA which landed its 36th straight first-place finish at its regional competition this past October. Individually, Jacob placed second in Navigation and fifth in Computer Accuracy to advance to the national competition in the Spring of 2023. Jacob aspires to earn a pilot slot upon graduation from USAFA and go on to be a fighter pilot. When he is not busy grinding to meet academic deadlines at USAFA or training at the airfield with the Flying Team, Jacob enjoys a good workout, a friendly smack-talk-filled game of pickup basketball, dancing to music of all kinds, and frequent visits to local taco trucks and ice cream shops.