NPS National Security Affairs student Lt. Kelli Guffey, president of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the Surface Navy Association (SNA), was officially presented the SNA Chapter of Excellence Award for 2016 during the National SNA Symposium, Jan. 12. It's the second year in a row that the Monterey chapter has been presented with this award.

"I feel a lot of pride with the chapter that we were able to put together our second SNA chapter of excellence," said Guffey.

Guffey credited the chapter's success to the previous SNA Monterey Bay Chapter president, Lt. Zack Martens, who helped re-energize the chapter and become more involved in the NPS student body, turning over a thriving organization into Guffey's hands.

"We're the only chapter that is student led, meaning there is a lieutenant, an O-3 running this chapter, and you don't find that in the rest of the chapters around the world," said Guffey.

"You also get a lot of senior officers who want to continue to invest the time to come out here to NPS and talk to our students," said Guffey. "I think that's a big part of what makes this chapter so successful."

The Monterey Bay SNA chapter is administered and organized primarily from a diverse group of junior officers, primarily at NPS, dedicated to the surface warfare community. The SNA hosts multiple events throughout the year open to current NPS students.

"The point of doing all the events is to build a sense of camaraderie, professional growth and to get the surface warfare community together with our leaders to discuss, not only things in the surface warfare community, but also what will affect our junior officers as they go forward in their careers," said Guffey.