Juliet Homes ’25 already knew she wanted to become a military officer in high school, and she immediately joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program when she arrived at Wellesley. But she hadn’t considered the United States Space Force (USSF) as an option until her sophomore year. In fall 2022, one of her ROTC instructors announced that anyone interested in applying to the USSF had a week to make a decision.
Homes spent the next seven days doing extensive research about the USSF, and eventually she decided to shoot for the stars and apply. Due to its small size, the USSF only offers operational roles, meaning that all of the branch’s personnel are working on missions on a daily basis. Homes wants to be an intelligence officer, and she figured she would have a much higher chance of pursuing that career in the USSF than another branch of the military.
Even though Homes was told she had a very low chance of being accepted into the USSF as a non-STEM major (she double majored in history and psychology), she was selected for the program in April 2023. This spring she became the first Cadet Wing Commander of the Boston-area detachment—the student in charge of the 150 officers-to-be in the MIT cohort—since Pamela Melroy ’83, the former astronaut who served as NASA deputy administrator during the Biden administration, and on May 15, the day before her graduation, she became the first Wellesley student to be commissioned into the USSF as a second lieutenant.
“One of the things I’ve loved about the Wellesley ROTC program is it’s small,” says Homes. “Its alumnae go really far, and are always willing to come back and help those of us who are here now.” She reached out to Melroy in October 2022 after she decided to apply to the USSF, not really expecting a reply from such a well-known alum; Melroy responded to her message within 12 minutes.
Homes met her in person when Melroy visited MIT in April 2023 to talk with the current ROTC class about her time in the Boston-area detachment. To celebrate the event, Homes wrote an article about Melroy’s trajectory in the U.S. Air Force and how her time at Wellesley shaped her career. During that visit, Melroy brought Homes up to the stage and performed Homes’s patching ceremony, changing out the patches on her uniform. “It’s a Space Force tradition that is based in the fact that the USSF is a service built from people of all other branches, all of whom had to transfer into it,” explains Homes. “The patching ceremony signifies the change from another branch to the USSF.” To have Melroy, a fellow “space person” and Wellesley alum, do Homes’s patching ceremony was a “full circle moment,” says Homes.
Balancing ROTC responsibilities with her Wellesley course load was a challenge, as was grappling with opinions about the military on campus. But Homes says Wellesley had a tremendous impact on her work in ROTC and will continue to impact her career and life beyond graduation.
“Wellesley really shaped me as a person, in the sense that it’s made me really tenacious,” says Homes, “and it has given me a sense of confidence I would not otherwise have. Being able to bring that to ROTC has been huge for my development.”
Homes was the only ROTC student on campus after her first year. With the help of Nicole Park, Susan L. Wagner ’82 Associate Director/Advisor for Government, Law, and Public Policy in the Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Center for Career Education, and Sheilah Shaw Horton, vice president and dean of students, she helped develop a stronger ROTC presence at Wellesley by talking about her experience with students who were interested in the program. By her sophomore spring, thanks to Homes, Wellesley had two more cadets, one of whom is commissioning next year. This past spring there were four Wellesley students in ROTC, making for a tight-knit group, and Homes is hoping the program will continue to grow after she graduates.
As a Cadet Wing Commander, Homes says she became more confident in her abilities to make and execute decisions. She calls the experience of being in a command position with important responsibilities a “unique privilege,” particularly as a young person. As both a Wellesley student and a member of ROTC, Homes has learned to advocate for herself in ways that will allow her to build a solid career in the USSF in the years to come.
During Homes’s commissioning ceremony the morning of May 15, which moved from Hay Amphitheatre to Tishman Commons due to the weather, Wellesley College President Paula Johnson commended her for completing the requirements for her diploma while also serving her nation.
“Wellesley really shaped me as a person, in the sense that it’s made me really tenacious and it has given me a sense of confidence I would not otherwise have.”
“This shows your commitment to the highest ideals of citizenship and self-sacrifice, for which we should all be greatly, deeply grateful,” said Johnson. “You are receiving your commission at a critical moment in history, a time when all those who support human rights, democracy, and the rule of law must do our part to protect and expand those freedoms. Here at home, and in many countries around the world, this is a time when individuals like you—people of conscience, integrity, and duty—have never been more needed.”
Johnson shared how when Homes noticed a dog and its owner in distress on Lake Waban last fall, she jumped into action to save both. She praised Homes’s selflessness, and reflected on Homes looking to Melroy for inspiration: “I have a sense that one day in the future, at a ceremony just like this, another Wellesley cadet will be thinking of a Wellesley alumna named Juliet Homes,” Johnson said, “and how excited she is to follow in her footsteps.”
The event’s keynote speaker, Rear Adm. Kristin Acquavella, commander of the Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, addressed Homes directly: “This is a launch, Juliet. A launch of your ambition and intelligence,” she said, embracing the space pun. “If you do four years or 40 years [in the USSF] it’s something you are always going to be proud of.” Acquavella praised Homes’s intelligence and resilience, saying that her undergraduate education would get her far. “At Wellesley, you get the best of both worlds,” she said, “a prestigious college education and an ROTC program considered one of the best in the country.”
Before the pinning of ranks—assisted by Homes’s best friend, Sarah Pottle ’25, and her fiancé, fellow USSF 2d Lt. Cameron Morgan—Acquavella gave Homes some advice: “Never forget that relationships matter. You have a ton of relationships from your time here at Wellesley that will carry long into the future. And in terms of serving your country, we all understand that relationships build readiness.”