How the Margin of Excellence Changed One Life

The footbridge at Lusk Reservoir is a well-worn path. On graduation morning, the Corps marches across it toward commencement. It is the cadets’ final march at West Point, a last movement together as a class from the apron to Michie Stadium.

In May 2024, then-CDT Fahad Abdulrazzaq ’24 crossed the footbridge with his classmates; however, his journey to the dais was anything but ordinary. Very few Americans have walked a path like his.

Fahad was born in early 2001 in Baghdad, just as the Global War on Terror was zeroing its sights on the city. Though his neighborhood was scarred by conflict and destruction, the strength of his family helped make them impervious to hardship. Fahad and his older brother Sahm Abdulrazzaq ’23 had an unbreakable bond with their parents and each other. Their father, a veterinarian, worked as an interpreter for U.S. soldiers. Their mother, a bank administrator, kept the family together while chaos, danger, and instability continuously unfolded outside.

The family moved to the United States in 2007 after his father and his family were given special immigration visas. Their transition was daunting—new schools and jobs, a new language, and a new culture, but each family member was able to accomplish their respective goals. In high school, Fahad flourished academically, serving as class president and distinguishing himself in JROTC, and ultimately set his sights on coming to the Academy.

The next step on his path was paved by the Margin of Excellence.

Fahad wasn’t admitted to West Point directly out of high school. His congressional nomination and strong file were not enough to secure a slot in the highly competitive Northern Virginia region. “I was devastated,” he recalls. “But then came the West Point Association of Graduates.”

His regional representative introduced him to WPAOG’s West Point Preparatory Scholarship Program (WPPSP), and recommended he consider this path, encouraging him, “It doesn’t matter how you get into West Point. It is worth going to West Point whether you go this year or next.”

The WPPSP is designed to provide partial scholarships for a year of post-secondary school education at preparatory schools and military junior colleges for carefully selected and highly motivated young people seeking admission to USMA. This year of preparation is so comprehensive that “Civil Prepsters,” as they are called, graduate from West Point at higher rates than all other admits. This opportunity fit Fahad perfectly, becoming a turning point. He received a scholarship to attend Georgia Military College for a year. He thrived in the military environment, competed on the Ranger Challenge team, and deepened his commitment to joining the Long Gray Line.

“That scholarship was the bridge that made everything possible,” Fahad says. “Without it, I wouldn’t have gone to West Point. I wouldn’t have had the experiences that shaped me into a leader. And I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now.”

At West Point, Fahad took advantage of every extracurricular opportunity he could, and he found his place academically and athletically. A member of the boxing team for all four years, he embraced the sport as a metaphor for his own life. “In many ways, I am a fighter,” he explains. “Not just in the ring, but in every challenge life throws at me.”

He also immersed himself in academic opportunities powered by the Margin of Excellence. He participated in multiple AIADs, including a strategic assignment with the Pentagon’s J5 Directorate and the Peace and Dialogue Leadership Initiative in Israel, where he translated for his Yale and West Point peers in conversations with Palestinian residents.

“It was an honor to serve as a bridge between my background and the group’s mission,” he says. “That experience deepened my belief that education is one of the most powerful tools for building peace after conflict.”

During his yearling year, Fahad became a Stamps Scholar via the Brigadier General Peter M. Dawkins 1959 Scholars Program. At West Point, Stamps Scholars receive funds to use for research and enrichment opportunities. Fahad used his stipend to attend a conference at Oxford University. That visit sparked his next dream and uncovered a path toward his next great journey. “That activated my ambition to pursue the opportunity to go to Oxford for graduate school. I wanted to experience its academic rigor and the spectrum of intellectual perspectives. The opportunity to use that Margin of Excellence funded program propelled me to where I am now and shifted my focus to that end. I want to shout this out pretty clearly: I have a strong connection to WPAOG in my heart.”

In 2024, Fahad was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. He is now pursuing two one-year master’s degrees at Oxford: one in Comparative and International Education Policy and the other in Public Policy. His first year dissertation focused on how foreign cadets who study at American military academies reintegrate into their home countries’ militaries —and how education can foster leadership, ethics, and hope after conflict.

“At West Point, I studied war and conflict,” he explains. “At Oxford, I’m studying hope—how education can help rebuild institutions and empower the next generation of leaders.”

Fahad continues to box at Oxford recreationally, crediting the sport as another bridge from his cadet years to his current life. But his primary focus is academics and the global community he has found in Oxford.

“Oxford is a melting pot of perspectives from every part of the world,” Fahad says. “I’ve met peers from Uganda, Beirut, Gaza, and across Africa and Latin America. We don’t always agree, but we engage in respectful dialogue. It is similar to West Point’s emphasis on intellectual rigor, but we enjoy an even broader diversity of perspectives.”

It is not lost on Fahad that his success is built on the foundation laid by WPAOG and the Long Gray Line.

“I like to think I’m one of the few Rhodes Scholars who started as a prepster,” he says with a smile. “That opportunity came directly from WPAOG. Without it, none of this would have been possible.”

For Fahad, the generosity of graduates and supporters is not just about dollars and programs—it is about lives transformed. “When you invest in the Margin of Excellence, you’re not just funding opportunities,” he says. “You’re empowering cadets to find their path, to become leaders, and to serve as bridges in a complex world.”

Now a commissioned Military Intelligence officer and scholar, Fahad is mindful that his professional journey is still in its early stages. “I remind myself every day: I haven’t really done anything yet,” he reflects. “Yes, I’m a Rhodes Scholar. But what matters is how I use this opportunity to make an impact.”

For a young man whose childhood home was destroyed by war, the path from Baghdad to Oxford—by way of West Point—is nothing short of remarkable. It is also a testament to the power of the Long Gray Line. “I am here because of West Point, and because of WPAOG, which gave me that first bridge of opportunity. The Long Gray Line changed my life.”