Many students have found JROTC to be a life-changing course once into the first year of the class. Sure, as you embark in this program, you will cover the basics in history, government, technology awareness, and current events. You will also be taught leadership skills (like how to motivate others to accomplish a task) and personal skills (how to study, take tests, interview for jobs, to name a few).
But JROTC also offers the chance to go to a summer camp where you’ll train on confidence courses, play team sports, and learn land navigation.
So, overall JROTC helps students develop a combination of skills, knowledge, and inner strengths. So you now have an idea of JROTC’s unique way of teaching its students. In fact, much of the teaching isn’t teaching at all —it’s training.
Variety approached some former and current JROTC cadets from the Ayuyu Battalion of Kagman High School. Battalion Commander Debra Buekis told Variety that the first day she joined the program, she knew she was a confident and friendly person. However, after spending four years in the program, she said she noticed a significant change in her. She changed into a better person — a person she never expected she could be. She said the program squeezed much more out of her and the program has prepared her more for life after high school than any other class she has taken.
Another cadet who requested anonymity said that she has only been in the JROTC for less than a year but the program has enabled her to reach
out to her peers and explore the more confident part of her. Teamwork and leadership are the top two traits she wants to work on as she progresses in the program.
KagHS alumnae and former JROTC cadet Mae Cepeda said that she used to be very self-destructive. “Entering high school, I was very depressed,” said Cepeda. “I joined JROTC because it was my dream to join the military but I did not know that it was not good to hurt yourself if you wanted to enter the armed forces. Throughout my time in the JROTC, I learned to love myself and others. I learned the pros and cons of joining the military.
I stopped hurting myself. I started opening up to my peers and learned that human interaction was not so scary after all.”
Cepeda said she has also witnessed the program transform very undisciplined, unkempt individuals into clean-cut, well-behaved students who understood the difference between right and wrong. She said the JROTC has served KagHS well over the years and has truly helped the turnaround.
“It is a great course to create great memories with your peers because you are able to connect with everyone! It is a fun yet much disciplined course of choice.” Cepeda added.
Today, Cepeda is working as a private citizen of the CNMI. She has made an attempt to join the military only once but has changed her career choice.
Buekis is on her last year of high school and said she has made her fellow cadets a part of her heart.
“Honestly, everyone will grow on you — even the instructors. Everyone will eventually become a family to you and this family closeness is one of the main ingredients in the never ending journey to grow and change into a better, more productive person,” said Buekis.
