Navy Recruiter Goes from Introvert to Expert in Arizona

Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class John Paul Curtis | Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Americo Rosario is highlighted in this week’s “Recruiter Spotlight.”  

PHOENIX, AZ, UNITED STATES

11.13.2020

Courtesy Story

Commander, Navy Recruiting Command

Story by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John P. Curtis, NTAG Phoenix Public Affairs.
PHOENIX - Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Americo Rosario earned the title of Navy Talent Acquisition Group (NTAG) Phoenix Recruiter of the Year for 2020. Rosario recruits out of Navy Recruiting Station Superstition in Mesa, Arizona.
Rosario, a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, joined the Navy eight years ago after feeling the call to serve and seek out new experiences and improve himself.
Rosario said he never wanted to stay in Colorado for the long term, so he made the decision to enlist into the U.S. Navy. Rosario said, not once did he regret enlisting.
“The Navy has provided me with the opportunity to broaden my horizons,” said Rosario. “It has exposed me to things I would’ve never been through.”
Rosario’s first duty station was with Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB) 1, which handles logistics for deployed units around the world. NCHB-1 provided Rosario with unique experiences. While assigned to the battalion he completed 40 missions with the highlight of them being an Antarctica deployment to resupply a science station.
“We would be working around this handmade, ice and dirt pier and you could see seals and penguins moving around,“ said Rosario. “It’s just not a place I ever expected to see.”
Once Rosario was eligible for follow-on orders, he said he didn’t want to take the traditional route of accepting orders to an easy shore duty position.
“I wanted to challenge myself and branch out into something unfamiliar and use my skillsets to spread Navy awareness because of the large impact it had on my life,” he said.
With that idea in mind, Rosario decided he would pursue Navy recruiting as an opportunity. This seemed like a great fit but it didn’t come without its challenges.
“I consider myself to be an introvert and that’s a hurdle because a recruiter can’t be like that,” Rosario said. “You’ve got to get out there and talk to people and do presentations in front of large groups of people and that’s not something I have done before.”

“I didn’t realize recruiting had so many factors to it,” said Rosario. “When you get out here and start recruiting and interacting with 17-18 year old kids, you realize it’s not that easy.”
After completing his first year, Rosario improved his approach to potential applicants and improved his recruiting successes.
“I just use regular conversation as an ice breaker and say ‘want to join the Navy’ right off the bat,” said Rosario. “It’s such an awesome organization and it changed my life and it can certainly change somebody else's life.”
This year he recruited 35 future Sailors, compared to 15 his first year, and not only is he the NTAG Recruiter of the Year, but also NTAG Phoenix’s Enlisted Nuclear Recruiter of the Year and Naval Special Operations/Naval Special Warfare Recruiter of the Year. He dominated in multiple categories and consequently he was meritoriously advanced to first class petty officer in September. Rosario also earned a degree in business administration with an emphasis on marketing.
All great accomplishments for a recruiter, but for Rosario it’s not his greatest achievement for the year. In May, Rosario became a father.
“It just sparked something huge inside me, having a little human being that you're responsible for. It just makes you feel like you have a whole different purpose and it motivated me to go from 100 to 1,000 percent at work.”
Rosario plans on making the Navy a career with goals to make chief petty officer and possibly apply for a commissioning to limited duty officer.
At the end of this year, Navy Recruiting Command will consist of a command headquarters, three Navy Recruiting Regions, 26 NTAGs and 64 Talent Acquisition Onboarding Centers (TAOCs) that will serve more than 1,000 recruiting stations around the world. Their mission is to attract the highest quality candidates to assure the ongoing success of America’s Navy.
For more news from Commander, Navy Recruiting Command, go to http://www.cnrc.navy.mil. Follow Navy Recruiting on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NavyRecruiting), Twitter (@USNRecruiter) and Instagram (@USNRecruiter).

• Date Taken: 11.13.2020
• Date Posted: 11.13.2020 15:04
• Story ID: 382997
• Location: PHOENIX, AZ, US