Livingston Teen Earns Prestigious Civil Air Patrol Award

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A high-achieving teen from Livingston has earned a prestigious award as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol.

Michael Shayevich, 15, recently received a General Billy Mitchell Award from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) at a ceremony in Fairfield. The award recognizes Shayevich’s “sustained excellence” in all four areas of cadet life: leadership, aerospace, fitness and character.

As a recipient of the Mitchell Award, Shayevich is elevated to the rank of cadet officer and promoted to the grade of cadet second lieutenant.

Only about 15 percent of CAP cadets earn this award, organizers noted.

According to a news release:

“Shayevich joined the Civil Air Patrol three years ago and immediately embraced its missions, which include aviation, aerospace, volunteerism, and emergency services. He pursued opportunities to learn and lead in his home squadron, the Curtiss-Wright Composite Squadron. In 2022, he was named “Cadet of the Year” as a non-commissioned cadet officer (NCO). In 2023, Shayevich attended a week-long cadet training program at Camp Nett National Guard Training Site in Niantic, Connecticut. Shayevich will join 100 cadet officers this summer for two weeks at CAP’s prestigious Cadet Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.”

Shayevich is an honor student at Livingston High School with a 4.04-grade point average. He is a member of the Livingston High School Wind Symphony and the Clarinet Ensemble of the New Jersey Youth Symphony.

Bilingual (speaking Russian and English), Shayevich lives in Livingston with his sister and parents, who are first-generation immigrants from Ukraine.

Curtiss-Wright Composite Squadron is a local unit of Civil Air Patrol (CAP) that has 45 cadets plus 20 adult members who reside in West Orange, Caldwell, Cedar Grove, East Hanover, Fairfield, Livingston, Morristown, Parsippany, Roseland, and Wayne. The squadron meets on Tuesday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the American Red Cross Northern New Jersey Headquarters, 209 Fairfield Road, Fairfield, NJ.

More information about the CAP Curtiss-Wright Composite Squadron can be found here: http://nj073.cap.gov/

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