When Chase Pearson enters the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this summer as an Army cadet, he said he will draw on lessons in leadership, teamwork, service and faith that he learned at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.

The member of DeMatha’s class of 2023 was the principal cellist and a leader in the school’s Sinfonia orchestra, a goalkeeper and captain on its soccer team, a member of its crew team, and helped lead a food collection program for immigrant families served at a local church, enlisting the help of fellow school athletes in the outreach.

“I think it’s really easy to see, looking back over these four years, how everything lined up,” Pearson said in an interview, reflecting how his experiences at the school led to his appointment to West Point and will help him in this new stage of his life. 

The 17-year-old Potomac resident is the son of Jay and Christina Pearson, and he has an older brother, William; an older sister, Cady; and a younger brother, Landon. The family attends St. Raphael Parish in Rockville. 

The DeMatha senior noted, “My grandad (William Pearson) was in the military,” and served in the Navy on a submarine. “His inherent discipline was easy to see,” said Pearson.

Asked about what drew him to becoming a member of the military after high school, Chase Pearson said, “There was something about the military. If you’re able to do it right, you’re outside your own needs and wants, and your entire job is to protect the country that has helped give you such great opportunities to be a citizen.”

He noted that during his high school years, he had the opportunity to speak with many active or retired military officers, who emphasized the importance of “being valuable to their team, not as an individual, but as a member, he said. “It brought a really valuable piece of perspective, when you’re working with others, see how you’ll fit with them.”

Pearson said that along with stressing the importance of being a member of a team, they also emphasized being patient, and after learning from your mistakes, “commit yourself to doing better for others in the future.”

The DeMatha senior said leadership and teamwork were central parts of his experience as the first chair cellist in DeMatha’s Sinfonia orchestra group during his junior and senior years.

“I think the most enjoyable and most challenging aspect was seeing where I fit in as a leader of the group,” Pearson said, adding that his teacher Matthew Bickel, the director of instrumental music at DeMatha, “really emphasized that as a senior, I should really take charge and lead, not only my section, but all the orchestra members.”

His fellow music students voted for Pearson to receive the Directors Award, the honor given to the most valued member of DeMatha’s orchestra.

“It was pretty special,” he said of receiving that award. “It didn’t really cross my mind that other members of my group and the orchestra considered me to be such a valued member of the team.”

Reflecting on his music experience at DeMatha, Pearson said, “Being part of an orchestra is very challenging, but it’s very rewarding… When you’re in unison and able to come together, whether in a competition or a performance, it really is a testament to you together as a team being able to work together, play off each other and trust each other.”

Pearson said playing soccer all four years at DeMatha, including three years on the varsity team and during his junior and senior years as its captain and goalkeeper, also gave him valuable experiences on how to conduct himself as a leader and teammate. “We were always fighting hard to get to the top,” he said.

Joining DeMatha’s crew team as a senior and rowing with teammates on the Anacostia River also was a great experience, Pearson said, adding that sport offers lessons for how a person can “adapt, overcome obstacles and persevere.”

“You’re in a boat with eight other people. You have to work together with those people, to make sure we can move the boat together, and that’s really where I got a sense of the meaning of teamwork,” he said.

The DeMatha senior said his school’s Catholic identity had a great impact on him.

“Coming into DeMatha, I didn’t have a sense of how I wanted to develop myself as a Catholic man. It’s one of the beautiful things, the way the Lord places certain people in your life,” he said.

For Pearson, those people included Erin Bright and Trinitarian Father Josh Warshak in DeMatha’s campus ministry office. He said their dedication to living their faith has offered “a north star to follow.”

Their example, he said, “taught me humility, and it taught me to value things that are not always tangible to this world. At the end of the day, what will matter when we leave this earth is the work we’ve done to prepare the kingdom of heaven.”

As a junior at DeMatha, Pearson was looking for ways to give back to the community, and Erin Bright and Father Josh in the campus ministry office helped him find a local program that needed help, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hyattsville that was serving immigrant families. Pearson enlisted the help of fellow athletes on DeMatha’s sports teams to collect and deliver food for the families there, while also collecting clothes and toys for them.

That service project has meant a lot to him, and students at the school have committed to continuing that effort after he graduates.

“I’ve done a lot of things at DeMatha to prepare me for this path leading to the military, but in reality at the end of the day, when you’re able to use your skills and talents and work with people you admire to serve your community, it’s much more meaningful than any personal accomplishments,” Pearson said.

The member of the class of 2023 added, “I think the value of my DeMatha education can be seen in many ways that are spiritual and practical as well. DeMatha really taught me time management and organization, and most importantly, self accountability. These are real-life skills that I’ll be able to apply to any next chapter in my life.”

For Pearson, the lessons he learned at DeMatha in the classroom, in music and sports and through community service, will be with him as he begins the next chapter in his life, as a West Point cadet.