WASHINGTON —
The Washington High School Navy Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps program will reach a major milestone during the coming school year by marking its 40th anniversary.
The program is one of six Navy JROTC units in the state of Indiana and one of 46 Navy units within the Area Three region, which also includes the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and West Virginia.
There are 583 Navy units across the country comprised of more than 83,000 high school cadets.
WHS NJROTC has also surpassed another major milestone by enrolling over 100 cadets for the new school year, and increase of 96 percent since being placed on probation for low enrollment in 2006.
“Since WHS NJROTC will exceed enrollment for the third consecutive year and gone over 100 cadets for the first time in decades, the program is now on very firm ground,” said Capt. Neil May, NJROTC senior instructor.
“This class of cadets will make history. By focusing on the quality of a cadet, the quantity of cadets will take care of itself; that is my philosophy in running the program,” added May.
And a quality focus it has been for WHS NJROTC. They have achieved the highest awards attainable in a probationary status for two consecutive years and are postured to recapture Distinguished Unit status in the spring, an award last held in 2005.
This summer, 22 cadets attended various basic and advanced leadership camps, as well as attending the first NJROTC STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) camp hosted by Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane.
“There is a critical shortage of engineering, technological, and leadership-oriented people in our country. Our strategy is to get to students early in their academic careers and open their minds to becoming leaders and pursuing careers in STEM. Our national security and future economic competitiveness depends on a steady supply of leaders and STEM-oriented young people to enter the workforce. Currently there is a deficit of over 1 million engineers in the United States. The jobs are out there waiting, but we lack qualified people,” May said.
Starting in June 2013, WHS and other area schools will have established an annual summer STEM and Leadership camp at Crane Naval Base. Dozens of local area JROTC cadets will be eligible to attend the week-long camp during which students are taught basic leadership skills and attending STEM-oriented tours and labs at Crane facilities taught by resident engineers and scientists.
“The technologies and research being conducted in our own back yard at Crane is simply eye watering,” said May. “The civilian and military people at Crane do a superb job linking for the cadets, STEM-related learning to practical application in support of real-world industry and national security. We are very proud of being able to establish such a fine program for our local area cadets, yet WHS NJROTC is also focusing on providing more community support. STEM learning is good, but learning service-over-self is the best lesson, and it’s our duty to teach that to our young people,” May concluded.
---- Special to TH
Local News
Related Photos
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Washington High School NJROTC Cadets (from left) Beau Evans, Elizabeth Sievers, Dylon Walker, Andrew Kingsolver and Reed Norton fine-tune their robotic underwater submersible built by the team before competition. Their robot was required to manuever through an elaborate underwater obstacle course for time. Kelly Overton
Discussion
WHS NJROTC turns 40
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