Rory Yoder '06MA is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard. He's a third-generation military aviator with a true curiosity and compassion for foreign cultures, language, and people. He is a husband and father. At Moravian Academy, he loved art and played varsity soccer. Now, he's an Olmsted Scholar living and learning in Croatia.
But above all else, Yoder is unabashedly a nerd. "Nerds are just people who care about stuff," he says. "But nerds tend to run the world too." According to Yoder, you don't have to be the best at something to be a nerd, but you do have to be passionate about it and pursue it with seriousness. In his experience, Moravian Academy is the "perfect place" to be a nerd. And he would know -- he's from a military family, having moved around the country 13 times before landing at the Merle-Smith Campus for his high school years.
At Moravian Academy
As a student, Yoder played varsity soccer for four years under the direction of longtime former coach Bob Hartman and made "some of the best memories" and friendships that "last to this day."
With a father and two grandfathers who were high ranking military officers, it might seem now that his future success in the Coast Guard was written in stone. As a student, however, Yoder considered following his passion for art under the tutelage of Mrs. Sue Maurer. He says, "I'm very thankful for Mrs. Maurer, especially, for cultivating my love of art and for being a positive and encouraging role model."
His gratitude for his alma mater is expansive, and he knows his Moravian Academy faculty and peers are a big part of what prepared him for the rigor and intensity of the Coast Guard Academy. "Looking back on it now," says Yoder, "I'm so thankful for being around people of different faiths, from different backgrounds, people who are first- or second-generation Americans, and just the academic caliber that I was exposed to [at Moravian] really made the Coast Guard Academy that much more endurable."
The Coast Guard
Inspired by seeing the "unquestionable good" of the Coast Guard "helping people on our own soil" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Yoder knew this would be his path. And, despite his inclination for leadership and his undisputable work ethic, the success of his journey is partly due to serendipity. He explains: "I signed up to be a naval architecture major at the Coast Guard Academy, but the registrar made a mistake and signed me up for civil engineering. By the time I got around to being able to change it, I decided that it was actually pretty cool."
As the honor graduate in his major, he qualified for flight school (one of only seven in his class to do so) and ended up stationed in Sacramento, CA where he excelled and became an aeronautical engineering officer. During his next tour in Clearwater, FL, he would oversee 125 people and four airplanes worth $130 million before he was 30 years old. It was that leadership experience that launched him into his next big opportunity as an Olmsted Scholar.
The Olmsted Scholar Program
Established in 1959, The Olmsted Scholar Program gives high-performing military officers the opportunity to immerse themselves in a foreign country while pursuing graduate studies in the language of that country. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity called to Yoder, who "did a lot of flying in Central and South America'' and "always loved interacting with foreign cultures, especially to achieve a common goal." In March 2020, he and his family were accepted into the elite program; Yoder would be an Olmsted Scholar in Croatia with minimal native language skills, a baby boy, and a genuine eagerness to grow as a leader.
"Nothing went according to plan. Not a single thing. But does it mean that it was a waste of time? No, it means it was amazing. That's the beauty of this program."
On Excellence
"Always take the job seriously, but never take yourself too seriously." This, according to Yoder, is the path to excellence. It's how he ascended the ranks of the military, furthered his education, and became the type of leader unafraid to uproot his life in pursuit of complete cultural immersion and the growth that comes from the unplanned messiness of new experiences.
He says, "Excellence is a frame of mind, and my favorite word in any language is balance. Learning to be objectively critical of what you didn't do well and learning to give yourself praise for what you did do well… It's always dynamic. It's always moving. So if you're excellent today, it doesn't mean you'll be excellent tomorrow."
In short, Yoder says, "excellence is a habit."