TINIAN — This school year 2022-2023, the Tinian JROTC Stallion Battalion brought back the recycling project that was first started by one of our former battalion commanders, Isa Long.
This school year, the school system provided a special class period called PBL, or Project Based Learning. This period is to help students develop knowledge and skills through hands-on projects around challenges and problems they may face in the real world. The battalion took advantage of this to continue the recycling project, which was on pause due to Typhoon Yutu and the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Sept. 30, the cadets created a presentation and discussed with their school’s principal their plans on how to prevent littering on the island. They showcased their ideas and took in suggestions from the principal on what they should do in order to prevent the spread of littering.
In the following week, the cadets hosted a meeting with the mayor of Tinian and presented their project to him. Learning about this project, the mayor has approved and donated a trailer and some banners for our battalion to use. The principal, too, has decided to provide some trash bins and a recycling device that could turn any plastic debris into reusable items for people to use.
We asked some of the cadets questions about this recycling project.
“What was the purpose for doing this project?”
The head leader of this project (C/1SG King, Tano) said: “We are doing this to help our environment and to keep not only our island, but the world clean and safe.”
All of the cadets agreed, which made their effort strong enough to even reach out to the public.
When we asked C/PFC Cruz, Jaydoria on how this project will benefit the community, she stated, “This project will teach our community to work together and make the island cleaner.”
C/1LT Nabors, Keith stated, “So far as a whole team, we‘ve presented to our principal about this matter and we have received many items donated by the school and the mayor of Tinian such as banners, recycling bins, and a trailer.”
We asked our instructor, CPT Santos, Joseph, about his thoughts. He commented, “The PBL project is going well and we have to remember that this is something that we actually started in 2018 and it is going to be tied into our JPA requirements, which is our Continuous Improvement Plan. PBL is teacher led and student driven. With that said, the project is going really well, we just need to keep up the motivation with everyone that’s involved.”
The Stallion Battalion will continue to promote this recycling initiative further in the community. Their next step is to explain to the younger generation the idea of this project and how they could help the cadets in this remarkable cause.
We hope that through our Recycling Project, we will be able to create an impact on our community and encourage others to take action themselves to help keep our islands clean.
The Stallion Battalion cadets are grateful to Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan for donating a trailer to the JROTC recycling project. Photo shows the cadets with the mayor and his staff.
Cadets sort out cans during the BBB Festival.
Cadets collect cans during the BBB Festival.
Cadets sort through the plastics and aluminum cans.
