The Marine Corps officer candidate training requirement is 23 pull-up repetitions for men. For women, it’s 11.

When Eliana Scott heard of this discrepancy, it sparked motivation for some extra preparation.

“I have a hard time seeing such differences… so I pushed myself to get 23 just like the guys do,” Scott says. “A lot of the girls asked me how I got to be able to do that and I said ‘Girls, I started from not being able to do any.’”

Dogged determination to defy expectations, sometimes even her own, have defined the last six years for Scott (’23, applied mathematics), during which the girl from Inglewood transformed into a Marine Corps second lieutenant, in pursuit of her dream to become an astronaut.

Scott navigated hurdles of all kinds on her way to not one, but two milestone accomplishments in 2023: obtaining her bachelor’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona in May and her Marine Corps commissioning in July. The hurdles outnumbered the accomplishments, and it wasn’t close: injuries from a motorcycle accident, working six days a week as a full-time student, a three-hour bus commute, a pandemic, technology challenges.

Those hurdles were a lot to grapple with considering Scott never thought she would go to college in the first place — her mother essentially applied to colleges for her. At her first advising appointment at CPP, she and advisor Benny Tillman scanned an alphabetical list of majors that began with aerospace engineering.

“I thought, ‘I can’t do that. Only smart people do that,’” Scott said. “I was looking for other things.”

Tillman told her she was capable. And with each challenge and achievement during her college career, Scott’s confidence grew.

The officer route also provided the chance to land in flight school, the first step toward becoming an astronaut. Scott’s dream was beginning to seem attainable.

“I reinforced that she has the capability of accomplishing anything,” Tillman says. “My goal is to never let a student feel like they are defeated.”

Scott majored in aerospace engineering before switching to applied math. Earning a college degree of any kind was something Scott had always aspired to, but her childhood dream was to join the military. That was her chance to become a superhero.

During her freshman year, she visited the Veterans Resource Center on campus. That’s where she found out about the Marine Corps officer training program, which would put her on a path to obtain a higher rank and better pay in the military. The officer route also provided the chance to land in flight school, the first step toward becoming an astronaut.

Scott’s dream was beginning to seem attainable. She would work six days a week to help pay for college. She would train with the Marine Corps for six weeks at a time in the summer. And she could graduate college with the STEM degree required to be admitted to flight school as a second lieutenant, and pursue the 1,000 hours of flight needed to apply to the astronaut program.

At this point, Scott felt light years away from the “girly girl” she once was growing up in Inglewood where the assumption of many was that she would pursue a career in cosmetology or a similar vocation.

“I had trouble with identity, who I wanted to be,” Scott says. “Growing up I just didn’t see too many people who looked like me going and being doctors or engineers or astronauts.”

Scott’s uncompromising drive is perhaps best exemplified by what happened at the start of her junior year after she returned from 12 rugged weeks at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. Sleep deprived and mentally and emotionally exhausted, she gritted her teeth and worked her way through the challenges of a STEM curriculum.

Two weeks into her senior year, though, Scott was in a motorcycle accident during her commute to school that landed her in the hospital. Her injuries were such that she couldn’t walk for a brief period, much less attend school, bringing into question whether she could stay on track to graduate and maintain eligibility for the Marine Corps officer training program. Her professors explored many options as her situation unfolded, and with their support, Scott was ultimately able to complete her work remotely and in various creative ways to catch up.

Scott’s determination was put to the test in myriad situations during her college experience, but with the support of her Cal Poly Pomona network she prevailed to don her cap and gown and graduate in May 2023. Two months later in her dress-blue uniform, she was commissioned as a Marine Corps second lieutenant.

“Now I know it’s just about sticking to your goals,” Scott says. “At this point, I think anything is possible.”

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